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Then, she scrambled up on Bob’s shoulder and put her 
cold, soft nose on his cheek. (Page 124) Frontispiece 


Kne etime Animal Stories 

SLICKO, THE 
JUMPING SQUIRREL 

HER MANY ADVENTURES 


BY 

RICHARD BARNUM 

M 

Author of “Squinty, the Comical Pig,’* “Mappo, the 
Merry Monkey,” “Turn Turn, the Jolly Elephant,” 
“Don, a Runaway Dog,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

HARRIET H. TOOKER 


NEW YORK 
BARSE & HOPKINS 
PUBLISHERS 



KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES 

By Richard Barnum 

Large i2mo. Illustrated. Price per volume 
40 cents , postpaid 

Squinty, the Comical Pig 
Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 
Mappo, the Merry Monkey 
Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant 
Don, a Runaway Dog 

BARSE & HOPKINS 

Publishers New York 


Copyright, 1915 
by 

Barse & Hopkins 


Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I Slicko Learns to JtJmp 

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M 

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PAGE 

7 

II 

Slicko Meets Squinty 



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16 

III 

Slicko Goes on a Visit . 


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[«] 

!•. 

. 

30 

IV 

Slicko Sees a Circus . 

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(•! 

[•; 

r.- 

38 

V 

Slicko and Tum Tum 

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i# 

50 

VI 

Slicko Goes Nutting . 

r*i 

M 

M 

C»1 

r*: 

58 

VII 

Slicko is Caught . 

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1.1 

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!•; 

[•; 

69 

VIII 

Slicko’s New Home . . 

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M 

!•: 

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78 

IX 

Slicko Does Some Tricks 

>: 

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w 

r.3 

!•: 

88 

X 

Slicko Runs Away . . 

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!•! 



97 

XI 

Slicko’s Big Adventure . 


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. 

107 

XII 

Slicko Finds Her Nest . 






117 



















I 


























ILLUSTRATIONS 


Then, she scrambled up on Bob’s shoulder and put 

her cold, soft nose on his cheek , . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Then Slicko led the little pig to where there were some 


acorn nuts, and Squinty ate them . . . . ... 25 

Taking a drink of the cool water, Slicko washed her 

paws and face in it 45 

“I’m only a little girl squirrel, and I wouldn’t hurt you 

for the world,” went on Slicko 59 

“Oh, how cruel, to catch a poor little squirrel in a 

trap!” exclaimed the first girl 81 

Slicko gave a sudden little jump, and, right through 

the paper she went 99 

Slicko sat up on the table in time to see the man give a 

jump through the window 119 




















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Y M/ 


















. 




SLICKO, 

THE JUMPING SQUIRREL 


CHAPTER I 

SLICKO LEARNS TO JUMP 

H ALF WAY up the side of a tall tree there 
was a round hole in the trunk. The 
hole was lined with soft, dried leaves, 
and bits of white, fluffy cotton, from the milk- 
weed plant. And, if you looked very carefully 
at the hole, you might see, peering from it, a 
little head, like that of a very small kitten, and 
a pair of very bright eyes. 

But it was not a kitten that looked from the 
little hole in the trunk of the tree. Kitties can 
climb trees, but they do not like to live in them. 
They would rather have a warm place behind 
the stove, with a nice saucer of milk. 

Now if I tell you that the little creatures who 
lived in this hole-nest had big, fluffy tails, and 
that they could sit up on their hind legs, and eat 
nuts, I am sure you can guess what they were. 
Squirrels! That’s it! In the nest, half way 
7 


8 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

up the big tree in the woods, lived a family of 
gray squirrels, and I am going to tell you about 
them, or, rather, more particularly, about one 
of the little girl squirrels whose name was Slicko. 

One morning Mrs. Squirrel, who had gotten 
up out of the nest early, to go out and get some 
breakfast for her little ones, came back very 
quickly, jumping from one tree branch to an- 
other, and fairly scrambling down into the nest 
where the little boy and girl squirrels of her 
family were still asleep. 

“Why, what’s the matter, Mother?” asked Mr. 
Squirrel, in the queer, chattering language he 
and his wife used. “Why are you in such a 
hurry this morning? See, you have dropped a 
lot of nuts!” 

He looked out over the edge of the nest, down 
to the ground, where he saw some of the nuts 
Mrs. Squirrel had dropped. She had been 
bringing them home for breakfast. 

“What made you run so?” asked Mr. Squir- 
rel, who had stayed home with the little ones, 
while his wife went after nuts. 

“Well, I guess you’d have hurried too,” said 
the mamma squirrel, “if you saw what I saw!” 

“What was it?” asked Mr. Squirrel, and he 
pulled his head in from the nest-hole, so that if 
any bad animals were down below on the ground 
they could not see him. 


Slicko Learns to Jump 9 

“It was a man, with a dog and a gun/’ said 
Mrs. Squirrel. “He was out hunting, and I’m 
almost sure he saw me!” 

“My, that would be too bad!” exclaimed Mr. 
Squirrel. “Do you think he followed you to 
shoot you?” 

“I hope not,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “I ran as 
fast as I could when I saw him, and I did not 
hear his gun go off, but I did hear the dog bark.” 

“Hum!” said Mr. Squirrel, in his own lan- 
guage, and he seemed as worried as your papa 
might be if he heard there was a bad animal, or 
a ruiiaway horse, coming after you. “So the 
hunter did not shoot his gun, eh?” 

“Not that I heard,” answered Mrs. Squirrel. 
“But he may be trying to find this nest.” 

“I’ll look out and see if he is coming,” said 
Mr. Squirrel. 

“Be careful he doesn’t see you,” said Mrs. 
Squirrel. 

“I will,” replied her husband. And then he 
carefully, carefully peeked out of the hole of 
the nest in the hollow trunk of the tree. Squir- 
rels are smarter than we think. Though they 
do not know how to shoot a gun, they know that 
a gun can hurt them, and when one is shot off in 
the woods, all the squirrels, and the birds and 
wild creatures, are very much frightened, and 
run to hide. 


10 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

So Mr. Squirrel looked out to see if he could 
see a man with a gun and a dog. But he saw 
nothing, and he was glad of it. 

“I guess he didn’t see which way you went, 
Mamma,” he said to his wife. “Now we will 
give the children their breakfast, and then we 
must begin teaching them their lessons. For if 
hunters, with dogs and guns, are to come to our 
woods, it is time our little ones knew how to look 
after themselves, and how to hide, and jump to 
safe places.” 

“I think so, too,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “Wake 
up, children!” she cried. “Come, Slicko! 
Hurry up, Chatter! Come, Fluffy and Nutto! 
Breakfast is ready!” 

Four little squirrels — two boys and two girls 
— awoke in the tree-nest and sat up on their hind 
legs in the soft leaves and cotton. They saw the 
nuts their mother had brought, and at once be- 
gan eating them. That was all they had to do 
to get ready for breakfast. 

The squirrel children did not have to dress, 
for they wore their fur suits all the year ’round, 
never taking them off. In winter their fur 
grew much thicker than in summer, to keep 
them warmer. 

The squirrel children did not have to wash 
themselves in a basin. All any of them did was 
to wet one paw with his little red tongue, and 


11 


Slicko Learns to Jump 

wipe it over his face. Then he was washed. 
But you wouldn’t like to do that, I’m sure. 

“Come, children, eat your breakfasts,” said 
Mrs. Squirrel, “and then you are going to have 
a new lesson.” 

“A new lesson!” chattered Slicko, one of the 
girl squirrels, to her mamma, speaking in a lan- 
guage that you or I could not have understood. 
“What kind of a lesson is it going to be?” 

You see the squirrel children had been taught 
how to gnaw open hard nuts, and to take out the 
sweet, juicy kernels inside. They had been 
taught how to climb trees, and wash their faces. 
But there were many other things for them to 
learn. Slicko was the largest of the squirrel 
children, and she asked the most questions. 

“What is your lesson going to be, Mother?” 
Slicko wanted to know. 

“I hope it’s going to be a sleeping lesson,” 
said Fluffy, one of the boy squirrels. “I’m 
sleepy yet,” and he yawned and stretched him- 
self, just like a little monkey. 

“Oh, fie on you!” said his papa. “Squirrels 
should be lively, and hop about when they awake 
in the morning. Come now, if you have fin- 
ished your nuts, your mamma and I will teach 
you a new lesson, and one that you must learn 
well, or there may be danger for you.” 

“Pooh, I’m not afraid! What sort of dan- 


12 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

ger?” asked Nutto, the other boy squirrel. He 
was called Nutto because he was so fond of eat- 
ing chestnuts. 

“Oh, I’m afraid,” said Chatter, the littlest girl 
squirrel. “Don’t say such scary things, Nutto,” 
and Chatter looked over the edge of the nest 
as though she might see a big hawk-bird swoop- 
ing down, for her papa and mamma had told 
her to always hide when a big hawk flew 
over the woods. But no hawk was in sight, 
now. 

“You are going to have some jumping les- 
sons,” went on Mr. Squirrel. “After you learn 
to jump, I will tell you why.” 

You see the papa squirrel did not want just 
then to tell the little ones about their mamma 
having seen a hunter-man, with a dog and gun, 
for fear, if he did, they might be too frightened 
to come out of the nest and learn to jump. But 
Mr. Squirrel knew there was no danger near, 
just then, at any rate, and he wanted his children 
to be as brave as they could be. 

Soon, after the breakfast nuts were eaten, the 
four little squirrels went out on a straight branch, 
that stuck out from the tree trunk near the nest. 
Papa and Mamma Squirrel stood there with 
them. 

“Now this is the idea,” said Mr. Squirrel, in 
his chattering language, that you or I could not 


Slicko Learns to Jump 13 

have understood, but which was as plain to the 
little squirrels, as a papa dog’s language is to 
a puppy, or a mamma cat’s mewing to her little 
kittens. “You are all going to learn to jump,” 
said Mr. Squirrel. 

“What’s a jump?” asked Slicko, who, as I 
have said, was always asking questions. She 
asked more questions than her two brothers and 
her sister together. But Slicko wanted to know 
about things. 

“See!” exclaimed Mr. Squirrel. “This is a 
jump. Now I am on this limb beside you. 
Now watch!” 

He gave a little spring, or jump, through the 
air, and landed on the branch of another tree, 
some distance off. 

“That is a jump,” said Mr. Squirrel. “It is 
getting from one branch to another without run- 
ning or walking. It is a quick way of walking, 
I suppose you could call it, and when you are 
in a hurry, as when some one is chasing you, 
and you have no time to run or walk, you must 
jump. Now let me see you jump down here, 
just as I did. Come on, all of you!” 

“Yes, go on!” said Mamma Squirrel, who was 
still on the tree limb by the nest. “You little 
squirrels must learn to jump. That is the one, 
big lesson left for you to learn.” 

Slicko looked at Chatter. Fluffy looked at 


14 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

Nutto. Then they all looked down at their 
papa on the lower limb. 

“Come on! Don’t be afraid!” called Mr. 
Squirrel. “Jump! You won’t be hurt!” 

“But — but I’m afraid,” said Nutto, who, you 
remember, had said he was not at all frightened. 

“Oh, you mustn’t be afraid,” said Mr. Squir- 
rel. “There is nothing to hurt you. I’m sure 
you can jump if you try. Give a good, hard 
spring, and you’ll land down here on the limb 
beside me. Besides, if you do fall, the ground 
is covered with soft leaves, and you won’t be 
hurt. Come on. Jump!” 

But the little squirrels did not want to. 

“You go first,” said Nutto to Fluffy. 

“No, I’d rather watch you go first,” spoke 
Fluffy. 

“Maybe Chatter will go,” suggested Nutto. 
“The girls are not as heavy as we are, and they 
won’t be hurt if they fall.” 

“One of you boys ought to go first,” said 
Slicko. “You are always saying you’re not 
afraid. You jump first, Nutto, and Chatter and 
I will come after you.” 

“Oh, I don’t want to,” said Nutto. 

And there the four little squirrels stood on the 
limb near the nest, each one afraid to jump. 
Their papa stood waiting for them, and he kept 
thinking that if the hunter and his dog should 


Slicko Learns to Jump 15 

come along then, the little squirrels would be 
in danger of being shot, if they did not know how 
to jump out of the way, and hide. 

“Come on. You must learn to jump!” called 
Mrs. Squirrel. 

Slicko took a long breath. After all, though 
she did ask a number of questions, Slicko was 
rather brave. 

“I’m going to jump,” she said. 

“That’s the girl!” cried her father. “Come 
on; jump down here beside me!” 

Slicko moved over close to the edge of the tree 
branch. Then, with another long breath, such 
as a boy takes before he dives, when he is in 
swimming, Slicko jumped from the tree branch. 

She found herself sailing through the air. At 
first she was greatly frightened. She spread out 
her tail, and then she found that she was floating 
through the air almost as gently as a bird’s 
feather. Her tail helped her to fall gently, for 
it was just like a big, open umbrella, and held 
her up, as the parachute holds up the man who 
jumps from a balloon. 

“There goes Slicko!” cried her mamma. 
“Slicko is learning to jump!” 

Down, down, down through the air went 
Slicko, the jumping squirrel. Would she land 
on the tree branch beside her father? Slicko 
certainly hoped so, but still it was her first jump. 


CHAPTER II 


SLICKO MEETS SQUINTY 

^ HAT’S the way to do it!” cried Mrs. 
Squirrel, as she saw Slicko sailing 
down through the air toward the 
limb on which was perched Mr. Squirrel. 

“Don’t be afraid. You’ll get down all right!” 
called Mr. Squirrel. 

Slicko fluffed out her tail as wide as she could. 
She felt that it was her tail which would save 
her from landing too hard and hurting her paws. 
Nearer and nearer she came to the limb on which 
was her papa. 

“Here you are!” cried Mr. Squirrel, a moment 
later, and with a little shaking up, Slicko found 
herself safely beside her dear papa. 

“Wasn’t that nice?” asked Mr. Squirrel, mov- 
ing over close beside his little girl. 

“Oh, indeed it was,” said Slicko, breathing a 
little faster than usual, for this was her first 
jump, you see. 

“Now, Chatter, Fluffy and Nutto! It’s your 
turns!” said Mrs. Squirrel. “See, Slicko made 
16 


Slicko Meets Squinty 17 

a good jump, and you can each do the same. 
Come on.” 

“Yes, do!” said Mr. Squirrel. “You really 
must learn to jump, and then I’ll tell you why.” 

“Oh, is it a secret?” asked Chatter, the other 
little girl squirrel. She was a sister to Slicko. 

“Yes, it’s a secret,” answered Mrs. Squirrel. 

Now I am not quite sure about it, but I sup- 
pose girl squirrels want to hear a secret just as 
much as real girls do, and I have always found 
that if you wanted to get a real little girl to do 
anything for you, that she would do it ever so 
much more quickly, if she thought there was a 
secret about it. 

Perhaps that is why Chatter made up her mind 
to jump as Slicko had done. Mind, I am not 
saying for sure, for I don’t know. OBut maybe 
it was so. 

Anyhow, Chatter moved over close to the edge 
of the tree limb. She looked down to where 
her papa and Slicko sat up on their hind legs, 
watching her. 

“Here I come! Catch me!” spoke Chatter. 

“All right — don’t be afraid,” answered her 
papa. “You won’t fall.” 

Chatter gave a jump, and down she went. 
Almost before she knew it, she had landed on a 
smooth place on the limb, close beside her sister 
and papa. 


18 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“There! I did it!” cried Chatter, in delight. 

“Of course you did!” said Slicko. “Wasn’t it 
fine?” 

“It certainly was,” agreed Chatter. 

“Come now ! The girls have jumped, and you 
boys mustn’t let them get ahead of you!” called 
Mr. Squirrel, to Nutto and Fluffy. “Come on, 
jump down here.” 

Well, of course the boy squirrels weren’t going 
to let the girl squirrels beat them, so first Nutto 
jumped, and then Fluffy. 

“There, now you have all learned to jump,” 
said Mrs. Squirrel. “Of course this is only the 
beginning. You must practice every day, just 
as you did when you were learning to climb 
trees, by sticking your sharp toe-nails in the soft 
bark. Every day you do a little jumping.” 

“But why, Mamma?” asked Slicko. “Is that 
the secret?” 

“That is the secret,” answered Mr. Squirrel. 
“You must learn to jump because your mamma 
saw a hunter-man, with a gun and dog in our 
woods this morning, and we must be ready to 
run away, and hide, if he should find our nest. 

“And, as you cannot always run or walk, and 
climb trees, you must need to know how to jump, 
so you can jump out of danger. That is why we 
gave you jumping lessons to-day. Now, when 
you are rested, you must jump some more. And 


Slicko Meets Squinty 19 

you must learn to jump up as well as jump down, 
though jumping down is easier.” 

The squirrel children asked many questions 
about the hunter-man, with his dog and gun, and 
Papa and Mamma Squirrel told their little ones 
all they knew, warning them always to hide when 
they saw a man with a gun. 

“Well, I’m going to learn to jump farther and 
higher,” said Slicko. “No hunter is going to 
catch me, if I can help it.” 

So Slicko began practicing jumping, going 
from one tree branch to another, up and down, 
and sideways. The papa and mamma squirrel 
watched on all sides while their children were 
jumping, to make sure the hunter-man did not 
come. 

Whether it was because Slicko was larger and 
stronger than her brothers and sister, or because 
she practiced harder, I do not know. But it is 
certain that, in a few days, Slicko was the best 
jumping squirrel in that part of the woods. She 
could jump farther than could Chatter, and even 
though Nutto and Fluffy were boy squirrels, 
Slicko could beat them. 

“Yes, Slicko is certainly a fine jumper,” said 
Mrs. Squirrel, to her husband one day. “She 
can jump almost as far as we can.” 

“Well, I hope she is careful,” spoke Mr. 
Squirrel. “I was over near the swamp, to-day, 


20 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

looking to see if I could find any sweetflag root 
for supper, and I heard a noise like a gun. That 
hunter-man is still in the woods.” 

“Maybe it was thunder you heard,” said Mrs. 
Squirrel. 

“No, I’m sure it was the gun of the hunter- 
man,” went on her husband. “Well, I am glad 
the little ones can jump. It will help them to 
keep out of his way.” 

“Indeed it will,” said Mrs. Squirrel. 

For a week or so after this, the little squirrels 
practiced jumping every day. As soon as they 
had had their breakfast of nuts, or oats or wheat, 
which their papa or mamma brought in from 
the farmer’s fields, the little squirrels would be- 
gin jumping. 

Sometimes they would run up and down the 
tree trunks, and again they would pretend to 
hide under the leaves, for their parents had told 
them that was a good way to keep out of sight 
when there was any danger in the forest. 

The Squirrel family lived in the woods, a very 
nice woods indeed; with many green trees grow- 
ing in it. The ground in some places was cov- 
ered with brown leaves, that had fallen off the 
trees, and in other places there was soft green 
moss, like the velvet carpet in the parlor at your 
house. 

And, not far from the tree where Slicko and 


Slicko Meets Squinty 21 

the other squirrels lived, was a pretty brook that 
ran through the wood, making nice music as it 
trickled over the stones. The water was cool, 
and good to drink, and often Slicko, and her 
brothers and sister, would come to the edge of 
the brook to bathe, or get a drink. 

One day, after she had practiced her jumping 
lesson for some time, Slicko said to her sister, 
Chatter: 

“Come on, let’s take a little walk in the woods. 
It is nearly time for chestnuts to be ripe, and we 
may find some.” 

“ Oh, I don’t want to go,” Chatter said. “I 
am tired from having jumped so much. I am 
going to lie down on the green moss, and go to 
sleep.” 

“Oh, then will you come, Nutto?” asked 
Slicko, of her brother. 

“No, for Fluffy and I are going to hunt hick- 
ory nuts,” said the boy squirrel. “You had 
better come with us. Chestnuts are not ripe yet. 
You won’t find any. But, if you come with us, 
you’ll find some hickory nuts.” 

“Oh, I think I can find some chestnuts,” spoke 
Slicko, and then, as neither her brothers nor her 
sister would come with her, the little girl jump- 
ing squirrel started off in the woods by herself. 

She ran along on the ground a little way. 
Then she climbed up a tree, and running out on 


22 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

a branch of that, she leaped from the end of it 
t to the end of another branch, in a tree a little 
farther on. Slicko was a good jumper. 

In this way she hurried on until she was quite 
a way from her home-nest. 

All of a sudden, Slicko heard a noise in the 
bushes, as if some big animal were breaking a 
way through them. 

“My! I hope that isn’t the hunter-man and 
his dog!” exclaimed Slicko in a whisper to her- 
self. “I had better be careful, and take a look 
before I go on any farther.” 

So the little jumping squirrel cuddled down 
under some leaves on the tree branch where she 
was sitting, and peered out. At first she could 
see nothing, except the bushes below her waving 
as something pushed through them. Whatever 
it was, it seemed to- be coming nearer and nearer 
her tree. 

Slicko felt sure it was the hunter-man, and she 
was getting ready to give a big jump, and hurry 
home to the nest, when, all at once, she saw some- 
thing sort of pink and white come out of the 
bush. As soon as Slicko saw this, she knew it 
was not a hunter-man, for it walked on four 
feet, whereas a hunter walks on two feet. 

“Why, it’s a little pig!” exclaimed Slicko, 
looking down. She knew it was a pig, because, 
not far from the woods where she lived, there 


Slicko Meets Squinty 23 

was a farm, and on the farm was a pen of pigs. 
Slicko had seen them once. 

“Yes, that’s a pig! I’m not afraid of him,” 
said the little squirrel girl. “Hello!” she called 
down to the pig, who was rooting along in the 
ground, looking for something to eat, I suppose. 

“Hello!” called Slicko. “What’s your 
name?” 

“Oh, hello! How you frightened me, call- 
ing that way!” answered the pig. “My name is 
Squinty. What’s yours?” 

Now if you had been listening to this talk be- 
tween the two animals — the squirrel and the 
pig — all you would have heard would have been 
something like this : 

“Chatter! Chat! Chat! Chit! Chit! Chirp! 
Chir-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!” 

And then: 

“Uff! Uff! Wuff! Wuff! Ugh! Ugh!” 

One was the squirrel talking, and the other 
was the pig answering. 

Of course it would not sound like real talk, 
such as you use, but it was real enough for Slicko 
and Squinty, and they could understand each 
other very well. They could also understand 
man-talk, your talk, also, as I will tell you a little 
later. But neither Slicko nor Squinty could 
speak man-language. 

“Ha! So your name is Squinty, eh?” asked 


24 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

Slicko, of the little pig. “Why are you called 
such a funny name?” 

“Because one of my eyes squints a little,” was 
the answer. “See !” Squinty looked up to show 
Slicko, and the little pig was such a funny pic- 
ture, as he stood there, with one eye partly shut, 
and the other wide open, with his head on one 
side, and one ear cocked forward and the other 
backward, he was so funny, I say, that Slicko 
could not help laughing. 

“Huh! What are you laughing at?” asked 
Squinty, in his funny grunting voice, with his 
little flat, rubbery nose wiggling sideways, and 
also up and down. 

“I am laughing at you,” answered Slicko. 
“Excuse me, but I can’t help it. You are so 
funny, and you have such a funny name.” 

“Oh, I don’t mind being laughed at,” said 
Squinty, with a sort of pig-laugh. “I am glad 
if you want to laugh, for it is better to laugh 
than cry. And I don’t mind my funny name,” 
he said. I think that was very nice of Squinty 
to say, don’t you? 

“I am glad I met you,” said the little girl 
squirrel. “At first I thought you were a hunter 
in the bushes.” 

“And I thought you were some one chasing 
me, when you called that way,” said Squinty. 
“But you haven’t told me your name yet.” 



Then Slicko led the little pig to where there were some 
acorn nuts, and Squlnty ate them. Page 2$ 




Slicko Meets Squinty 27 

“I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel,” was the 
answer, “and I am hunting in these woods for 
some chestnuts. What are you doing here?” 

“I am here because I have run away,” said 
Squinty. “I am looking for something to eat. 
Are hickory nuts good?” 

“Very good,” Slicko answered. “I’ll see if 
I can find some for each of us.” 

The little squirrel found some hickory nuts, 
but they were so hard that Squinty, the comical 
pig, could not eat them. 

“I guess you’d like some acorns, they are 
softer,” Slicko said. 

“Indeed I would, thank you,” spoke Squinty. 

Then Slicko led the little pig to where there 
were some acorn nuts, and Squinty ate them. 
Very glad he was to get them, too, for he was 
quite hungry. 

“Why are you called Slicko?” asked Squinty, 
when he did not feel quite so hungry as at first. 

“My mamma called me that,” answered the 
little squirrel, “because my fur is so slick and 
shiny.” 

“It is a good name,” said Squinty. “Don’t 
you want to travel along with me. through the 
woods, and have adventures?” 

“Thank you, no. I guess not,” replied Slicko. 
“Hark! What’s that?” 

They both listened, and heard a sound like: 


28 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Chatter! Chatter! Chat! Chit! Chat! 
Chir-r-r-r-r-r!” 

“What is it?” asked Squinty, in a whisper. 

“That is my mamma calling me,” answered 
Slicko. “I must go back to the nest now. Good- 
bye, funny little pig.” 

“Good-bye,” answered Squinty, and he went 
on, looking for adventures. He had many of 
them, and I have told you about them in the first 
of these books, called “Squinty, the Comical 
Pig.” He was bought by a boy, taught to do 
many tricks, and finally ran back again to his 
home in the pen on the farm. 

After Slicko had said good-bye to Squinty, the 
comical pig, the little girl squirrel ran and 
jumped on through the woods, for her mother 
kept calling to her to come to the nest. 

“My, I hope nothing has happened,” said 
Slicko, as she hurried on. “And I didn’t find 
any chestnuts,” she said, as she looked at the few 
hickory nuts she was bringing home. Fluffy 
and Nutto will laugh at me. But I don’t care.” 

Pretty soon Slicko reached the nest. 

“My! Where have you been?” asked her 
mamma. 

“Looking for chestnuts,” answered Slicko. 

“Did you find any?” asked Nutto, as he and 
his brother came climbing up the tree just then. 

“No, but I found some hickory nuts, and some 


Slicko Meets Squinty 29 

acorns, and I gave some acorns to ^a cute little 
pig,” said Slicko, explaining how she had met 
Squinty. 

“I wish we had gone with you,” said Fluffy. 
“I’d like to have seen that pig. Come on, Nutto. 
Let’s go out and see if we can find him in the 
woods.” 

“No, you must not go away!” chattered Mrs. 
Squirrel. “I want you all to stay here. Some- 
thing has happened, and we shall have to go 
away from our nice nest.” 

“Go away from our nest!” cried Slicko, in sur- 
prise. 

“Yes,” answered Mrs. Squirrel. “It is no 
longer safe to stay here. But here comes your 
papa. He will tell you all about it. We are 
in great danger, and that is why I called you all 
back. Now listen to what your papa has to say.” 


CHAPTER III 


SLICKO GOES ON A VISIT 

M R. SQUIRREL came along, hurrying 
and jumping through the leafy 
branches of the trees as fast as he could 
come. When he was still some distance away 
from the nest, he took a long jump, and landed 
on the limb near the hole in the tree. 

“Did you see him?” asked Mrs. Squirrel. 
“Yes. He is in the woods,” chattered Mr. 
Squirrel. “But he may not be here for some 
minutes. We have time to run and hide. And 
we had better not keep together. We must all 
go different ways, and then he will not find us 
so easily.” 

“Oh, what is it?” cried Slicko. “What has 
happened?” 

“The hunter-man, and his dog, have found 
out where our nest is,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “At 
any minute he may come here to shoot us, or 
catch us.” 

“Oh, how dreadful!” cried Chatter, and even 
Nutto, who was supposed to be very brave, for 
a squirrel, looked frightened. 

30 


Slicko Goes On a Visit 


31 

“But don’t worry too much,” said Mr. Squir- 
rel. “I have seen the hunter in time — him and 
his dog and gun — and we will get safely away 
from him. Come now, we will separate, each 
going a different way; then the hunter will not 
find us, I hope.” 

“But where shall we go?” asked Slicko. “And 
what shall we do for something to eat, and a 
place to sleep nights, if we go away from our 
home-nest?” 

“Well, you squirrels are old enough now, to 
hunt food for yourselves,” said Mrs. Squirrel. 
“I am glad of that, for I shall not worry so 
much about you. And you know how to run 
and jump.” 

“I am glad we learned how to jump in time,” 
said Slicko. 

“Yes, if you had waited, and kept on putting 
it off,” said Mr. Squirrel, “you would not now 
be ready to run and hide away from the hunter, 
and be able to take care of yourselves. As for 
a place to sleep, your mother and I are going 
to send you all on visits to our friends, or rela- 
tions. You can stay with them for a while, 
until it will be safe for us all to come back to our 
nest again.” 

“Oh, then we are going on a visit!” exclaimed 
Slicko. 

“Something like that, yes,” answered her 


32 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

father. “And we must hurry, too, for the hun- 
ter may be here any minute. I passed him in 
the woods, and he was coming this way.” 

“Did he see you, Papa?” asked Nutto. 

“No, for I kept well behind the leaves, and 
hurried on. My! how that dog did bark, 
though. He seemed very savage.” 

“Squinty, the comical pig, told me of a dog he 
knew,” said Slicko, “but he said that dog was 
kind and gentle. His name is Don.” 

“This dog’s name wasn’t Don, I’m sure of 
that,” spoke Mr. Squirrel. “But we must not 
stay talking here. Scatter, every one of you! 
Nutto and Fluffy, you go over to Grandpa 
Beechnut’s nest, and stay with him. I don’t be- 
lieve the hunter knows where that is. 

“Chatter, you can stay with Mr. and Mrs. 
Acorn, the squirrels who live in the hollow 
stump. Your mother and I will go off in the 
woods, and make a new nest, so if we can not 
come back to our old one, we will still have a 
home when winter comes.” 

“But what am I to do?” asked Slicko. 
“Where am I to go?” 

“I have not forgotten you,” said Mrs. Squir- 
rel. “You can go over and stay with your Aunt 
Whitey until it is safe. Your aunt will be glad 
to have you, for she lives all alone, and she has 
room for only one small squirrel in her nest be- 


Slicko Goes On a Visit 


33 


side herself. You run over there, and tell her 
all that has happened — how the hunter has found 
our nest.” 

“And go quickly!” suddenly cried Mr. Squir- 
rel. “Here the hunter-man comes now— with 
his dog.” 

Just then there sounded through the woods: 

“Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!” 

“That’s the dog,” said Mr. Squirrel. “Hurry, 
children, and don’t forget the lessons we have 
taught you.” 

“We won’t!” promised Slicko. 

Then came another sound, a dreadful noise, 
like thunder. 

“Bang!” sounded through the woods, making 
the leaves on the trees shake. 

“That’s the hunter’s gun!” exclaimed Nutto. 
“Run, everybody!” 

Off through the woods scampered Slicko, her 
father and mother and her brothers and sister. 
Slicko climbed up one tree, jumped into another, 
and still another. 

“I don’t believe the hunter and his dog will 
get me,” thought Slicko, as she hurried on to- 
ward the nest where her Aunt Whitey lived. 

Pretty soon the hunter-man and his dog came 
to the foot of the tree where Slicko used to live. 

“Ha! There’s that squirrel nest I saw the 
other day,” said the man to himself. “I wonder 


34 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

if there are any in it? I’ll wait a while, and 
see if I can shoot any of them for my dinner.” 

“Bow wow! Bow wow!” barked the dog. 
Perhaps he, too, wanted some squirrels for his 
dinner. 

All around the foot of the tree ran the dog, 
barking as loudly as he could. Maybe he was 
hoping he could scare the squirrels out of the 
nest so his master could shoot them with his 
gun. 

The man waited and waited, looking up at 
the hole in the trunk of the tree, where he knew 
the squirrels had lived. But he did not know 
they had gone. That was the time the squirrels 
were smarter than the hunter. 

Several hours passed, and still the man waited. 
Every now and then he would look up at the 
hole, with his gun all ready to shoot, and the 
dog, who had been running off in the woods, 
looking for more squirrels, would come back, 
barking louder than ever. 

“Well, I guess those squirrels have gone 
away, Carlo,” the man finally said to his dog. 
“It is of no use for us to stay here. Come, we 
will go look for other squirrels to shoot.” 

“Bow wow ! Bow wow ! That will be fun !” 
barked Carlo. Of course being a dog, he did 
not know any better. 

And so the hunter-man went away from the 


Slicko Goes On a Visit 35 

empty nest, where Slicko and the other squirrels 
had lived. 

All this while Slicko, the jumping squirrel, 
was hurrying along through the woods, toward 
the nest of her Aunt Whitey. Slicko’s aunt had 
that name because there was a white spot on the 
end of her tail. Mrs. Whitey and Mrs. Squir- 
rel were sisters, and of course that made the 
squirrel, with the white on the end of her tail, 
Slicko’s aunt. And Slicko liked Aunt Whitey 
very much. There were always plenty of nuts 
in Aunt Whitey’s nest, and Slicko, as well as 
her brothers and sister, liked to come on a visit. 
But this time Slicko was all alone. 

Pretty soon the little jumping girl squirrel 
came to the tall tree where Aunt Whitey lived. 

“Now I must be very careful,” thought Slicko. 
“I must wait, before running in, to see if any 
hunter-men, or dogs, or other enemies are watch- 
ing me. For if they are, they would see where 
I go in, and they could find the nest, and maybe 
catch Aunt Whitey and me.” 

Squirrels, like birds and other woodland crea- 
tures, do not like human beings to know where 
their nests or homes are. So they take care to 
make the front doors in such a way they can not 
easily be seen, and when the forest creatures go 
in, they always look around first, to see that no 
enemy is watching. In that way they keep their 


36 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

homes, or nests, secret. They have to, for they 
have so many enemies. 

Slicko looked all around, and, seeing no dogs, 
wild animals or hunter-men on the watch, to spy 
on her aunt’s nest, the little squirrel scrambled 
up the tree, sticking her sharp toe nails in the 
soft bark as she had been taught to do. 

When Slicko was half way up, she saw a hole 
in the tree, just such a hole as at her nest at 
home. This was the front door to the home of 
her aunt. 

Slicko gave two or three taps on the bark with 
her front paw. 

The little girl squirrel always did this when 
she called on Mrs. Whitey, so the squirrel lady 
would know it was one of her little friends or 
relations, and not a bad owl, or hawk-bird, want- 
ing to eat her up. 

Slicko expected to hear her aunt chatter, as 
she always did: 

“Come in and have some nuts I” 

But there was no answer. 

Slicko knocked again with her little paw, and 
then, thinking her aunt might be asleep, the lit- 
tle jumping squirrel gave a little hop down in- 
side the nest. It was just like the nest at home, 
which she and the others had left because of the 
danger from the hunter-man. 

At first, coming in the dark nest, after having 


Slicko Goes On a Visit 37 

been out in the bright sunlight, Slicko could see 
nothing. Just as when you come into the house, 
after having walked along the snowy road from 
school, you have to wait until your eyes get used 
to the darker house. It was that way with 
Slicko. 

Pretty soon, however, she could look about the 
nest, and then her heart grew sad. For she saw 
that Aunt Whitey did not live there any more. 
The nest was deserted, and empty. Most of the 
soft leaves, and the cotton from the milkweed 
plant had been tossed out. The nest was all 
upset. Most of the nuts were gone, and it looked 
as though some boy, or man, or animal had been 
inside, catching the squirrel lady, and taking the 
nuts she had stored away to eat. 

“Oh, dear!” thought Slicko. “This is ter- 
rible! Aunt Whitey has either run away, or 
been caught. There is no one here to take me! 
What shall I do? Can I stay here all alone? 
Oh, dear! Isn’t it too bad!” 

Slicko cowered down in the empty nest and 
wondered what she should do, now that she had 
no home to go back to. 


CHAPTER IV 


SLICKO SEES A CIRCUS 

F OR a few minutes after jumping down in- 
to the empty nest of her Aunt Whitey, 
little Slicko did not know what to do. 
It had all happened so suddenly — the breaking 
up of the family, each one going to a different 
place to hide, the coming of Slicko to these 
woods, and the finding of the empty nest — that 
the little squirrel did not know what to think 
of it. 

Slicko listened as sharply as she could for any 
sounds of danger. She bent her two little ears 
forward, just as her mamma had told her to do 
when she wanted to listen to any far-off sounds. 
But Slicko could hear nothing. 

That is, she could hear nothing that sounded 
like danger. Of course she could hear the wind 
blowing through the trees, the singing of the 
grasshoppers, the call of the birds and noises 
like that. 

And none of these sounds meant any harm to 
the little squirrel. She had heard them all her 
life. 


38 


Slicko Sees a Circus 39 

“Oh, but it is so lonesome!” whispered Slicko 
to herself. She did not want to speak aloud in 
her queer, little chattering voice, for fear some 
one — like a bad dog or a snake — would hear 
her. And yet Slicko wanted to talk to some 
one, even if it was only herself. 

She lifted up her head, from where she had 
nestled it down among the dried leaves in her 
aunt’s nest, and looked about her. The nest was 
rather dark, but Slicko could see better now. 
And what she saw made her sure that her aunt 
had either been taken away by some enemy, or 
had run off in a great hurry. 

For the nest was all upset. The leaves were 
scattered about, and most of the nuts were gone. 

“Well, I guess I’d better stay here for a while,” 
thought Slicko to herself. “There are a few 
nuts here, and I can eat them when I get hungry. 
When I want more, I shall have to go out and 
get them, but, by that time, it may be safe. 
Yes, I’ll stay here to-night, anyhow.” 

Slicko peeped out of the opening to the nest 
— it was a sort of front door to the squirrel 
house. Slicko could see that it was getting dark 
in the woods ; that night was coming on. And 
night, Slicko knew, was no time for a little 
girl squirrel to be alone in the forest. 

There were big-eyed owls flying about then, 
and other enemies that might catch her. 


40 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“So I shall be better off staying in the nest, 
even if Aunt Whitey isn’t at home,” thought 
Slicko. “Poor Aunt Whitey!” she whispered. 
“I wonder where she can be.” 

Then Slicko happened to think that perhaps 
her squirrel aunt might be hiding outside some- 
where, as wild animals often do hide, near their 
nests, or homes, whenever they have been 
frightened away. 

“I’ll call to her,” said Slicko to herself. 

Going softly to the opening to the nest, Slicko 
put out her head, and called : 

“Aunty! Aunty Whitey! Where are you?” 

She listened, but all she heard in reply was the 
singing of a robin, the call of a grasshopper and 
the noise of the wind in the trees. 

“I guess she has gone far off,” thought Slicko. 
“Well, I will stay here until I find some other 
place to go. Oh dear! If mamma and papa 
only knew I was here all by myself, they would 
come to me, or take me with them. But now 
I shall have to stay all alone. Oh dear!” 

It was the first time little Slicko had ever been 
alone at night, but she was going to be brave. 
Little animals have to be brave whether they 
want to or not, and they have to leave their 
homes and find their own things to eat, much 
younger than do real children. 

So, in a way, animals do not so much mind 


Slicko Sees a Circus 41 

being away from their papas and mammas as 
you children would. 

At first Slicko was pretty lonesome. She 
shivered, and cuddled down in the leaves of her 
aunt’s nest, and wished she had her brothers 
Fluffy and Nutto, and her sister Chatter, to 
play with. They had always played little 
jumping or running games before going to sleep 
nights. But now Slicko was all alone, and had 
no one to play with. 

But, as I have said, Slicko was going to be 
brave. 

After the little jumping squirrel got over her 
first feeling of fright, she began to be hungry. 
There were a few nuts left in the nest, and 
Slicko ate some of them, and felt better. 

“And now I must make a warm place to 
sleep,” she thought. Her mother had taught 
her how to make herself a bed in the dried 
leaves, and now Slicko did this. She smoothed 
out a little hole, and pulled up some leaves that 
would fall over her, and cover her up like a 
blanket, when she went to sleep. For though 
it was not yet winter, it was very cool in the 
woods at night. 

Soon Slicko was fast asleep. Animals go to 
sleep very easily when they have eaten, and are 
not frightened. They do not have to be sung 
to, nor told stories, and they do not have to have 


42 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

the light turned down low. They always go 
to bed without a light. 

Once, in the middle of the night, Slicko was 
awakened. She heard a noise at the opening 
of the nest, a scratching sort of noise, and it 
sounded as though some one were trying to come 
in. 

“Oh, dear! I wonder who it can be?” thought 
Slicko. “But I’m not going to get up to look,” 
she went on. “No, indeed!” 

Instead, she covered herself up deeper in the 
leaves, and tried to go to sleep. She could not, 
though, for the noise kept up. And then, all 
of a sudden, something hooted: 

“Who! Who! Who! Tu-whoo!” 

“Oh, it’s an owl!” thought Slicko. “A big 
owl. But he can’t get in here to eat me. I’m 
safe. Maybe that’s the owl that drove Aunt 
Whitey out of her nest.” 

Once more the owl hooted, and then Slicko 
heard the flapping of its wings as it flew away. 

“He didn’t get me that time,” thought Slicko. 
“But I must be very careful! Very careful!” 

Soon the little girl squirrel was asleep again, 
and when next she awakened, the sun was shin- 
ing down, through the hole, into the nest. 

“Oh, good! It’s morning!” chattered Slicko. 
“Now the owl can’t get me.” 

Slicko knew that owls fly only at night, for 


Slicko Sees a Circus 43 

they have such funny eyes, that sunlight makes 
them almost blind, and they cannot see to catch 
little squirrels. So Slicko knew she was safe, 
for a while, at least. 

“Now for breakfast, then to wash my face and 
paws, and we’ll see what happens,” whispered 
Slicko to herself. It did not take long to eat 
the nuts for breakfast. Then Slicko felt thirsty. 
She knew there was a nice spring of water not 
far from her aunt’s nest, for, when she had 
come visiting other times, she had gone to it to 
get a drink. 

“And I wonder if it would be safe now?” 
thought Slicko. “I’ll take a look and see.” 

She peered from the nest and saw nothing to 
frighten her. Some birds were flitting through 
the leafy trees, and down on the ground some 
little hop-toads were jumping about. Perhaps 
they were playing some game, as you play tag, 
for you know animals have fun just as children 
do, though, to be sure, it is a different kind of 
fun. 

“Yes, I’m going to get a drink,” said Slicko, 
and she slipped out of the nest, and began to 
climb down the side of the tree. But she was 
very careful how she did it, for she knew danger 
might be near, though she could not see it. 

She ran quickly half way around the tree and 
stayed there a second, with her body held flat 


44 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

against the trunk. Slicko was colored gray, and 
the tree bark was a sort of gray, so, unless you 
had looked very sharply, you might not have 
seen her yourself, until Slicko moved. 

While she was holding herself there, very 
quietly, Slicko was looking about to see if the 
owl, or any other bad bird, or animal, were in 
sight. But she saw nothing, and then she 
scrambled down to the ground, and ran to the 
spring. 

Taking a good drink of the cool water, Slicko 
washed her paws and face in it. Then she 
combed out her tail with her claws, for all squir- 
rels are very clean and tidy animals. 

“Well, I wonder what I shall do now,” 
thought Slicko. “I guess I’ll have to stay in 
Aunt Whitey’s nest for a long time, maybe. I 
had better look about for more nuts, for when 
those in the nest are gone, I shall need more to 
eat. Yes, I will look for nuts.” 

She started off through the woods, but she had 
not gone very far, when, all of a sudden, she 
saw something brown moving up in a tree. 

In a second Slicko hid herself under some 
leaves, and waited. She was in a place where 
she could watch the brown creature. At first 
Slicko thought it might be a big snake, or maybe 
the owl that had tried to get her in the night. 

Then, as the brown creature moved closer, 



Taking a drink of the cool water, Slicko washed her 
paws and face in it. Page 45 



Slicko Sees a Circus 47 

Slicko saw that it had a long tail, and four legs, 
and the legs had something like hands on the 
ends. 

“Why, it looks just like a brown, hairy boy!” 
thought Slicko. “And I’m afraid of boys. 
Mamma said they were dangerous. I wonder 
what I had better do?” 

Slicko hid deeper down in the leaves, and, a 
little later, as the brown animal came closer, 
the girl squirrel saw that it was not the kind of 
a boy she had ever seen before. For, though 
boys can climb trees, they can not climb up and 
down as fast as the brown animal was doing, nor 
can they hang by their tails. In fact, as Slicko 
knew, boys have no tails. 

And then Slicko heard the brown animal say: 

“Ha! Here are some of those chestnuts! I 
must get some, for, though they are not as good 
as cocoanuts, they will keep me from being 
hungry. Yes, I’ll get some!” 

“Ha!” thought Slicko. “That creature is not 
a boy, that’s sure! And it eats nuts just as we 
squirrels do. I don’t believe it will do me any 
harm. I’m going out to see.” 

Slicko crawled out from under the leaves, and, 
as soon as she moved, the brown creature called 
out: 

“What is that? Who is there? Who is it?” 

His voice was a sort of chatter and chirp, like 


48 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

that of some bird, but Slicko could understand 
it pretty well. 

“It is I, if you please,” said Slicko. “I am 
a little girl squirrel, and I am staying at my 
aunt’s nest, but she isn’t home. Who are you, if 
you please?” 

“I am Mappo, the merry monkey,” was the 
answer. “But I can’t see you. Where are 
you?” 

“Down in these leaves,” answered Slicko, and 
she waved her tail, so Mappo could see her. 

“Oh, there you are!” cried the monkey, and 
down he scrambled beside her. “What are you 
doing here?” asked Mappo. 

“I am hiding away from a hunter and his 
dog,” went on the little squirrel. “All our fam- 
ily ran away from our nest, and I came here. 
But my aunt is gone too, so I am all alone.” 

“Never mind,” said Mappo, kindly, “I am 
all alone also, so we will keep each other com- 
pany.” 

“Where did you come from?” asked Slicko, 
who had never before seen a monkey. 

“Oh, I used to live in a big woods, with my 
brothers and sisters,” said Mappo. “But, of 
late, I have been with a circus. I ran away from 
my cage in the circus though, and came to these 
woods. And I’ve had the most fun! I met a 
comical little pig named — ” 


Slicko Sees a Circus 49 

“Oh, I know what he was named !” interrupted 
Slicko. 

“What was his name?” asked Mappo. 

“Squinty!” cried the little girl squirrel. “And 
he had the funniest nose, and one of his eyes was 
half shut, and — ” 

“That’s the one!” exclaimed Mappo. “How 
did you meet him?” 

Then Slicko told of having talked to Squinty, 
and Mappo also told how he had met the com- 
ical little pig, just as I have told you in the book 
about Squinty. 

“But you said you used to be in a circus,” 
spoke Slicko, after a while. 

“So I did,” answered Mappo. 

“What’s a circus?” Slicko wanted to know. 

“What! Have you never seen a circus?” 
asked Mappo. “Well, I must show it to you. 
It is not far off. But I am not going back to it 
right away. Come along.” 

Mappo, the merry monkey, started off through 
the forest, with Slicko following. Pretty soon 
they saw a road in front of them. And, on the 
other side of the road, were some big white 
things, that looked like houses people live in. 

“Those are the circus tents,” exclaimed 
Mappo. “Listen and you can hear the music.” 

Slicko sat up on her tail and listened. She 
heard many strange sounds. 


CHAPTER V 


SLICKO AND TUM TUM 

“71 yf APPO,” asked Slicko, as she sat under 
\/| the shade of a tree, near the road, 
and looked across at the tents in the 
vacant lot, “is that what you call a circus, 
Mappo?” 

“That is a circus, little Slicko,” answered the 
monkey, kindly. 

Slicko saw the white tents, she heard the bands 
playing music, she heard men and boys calling 
out strange words, such as “ice cream cones!” 
“pink lemonade!” and “peanuts!” The last 
word was the only one Slicko knew, for she had 
heard that before. 

Once a squirrel who had lived in a city park 
came to visit Slicko’s mamma and papa. And 
this city squirrel told how the children used to 
go to the park and feed the squirrels peanuts. 
So Slicko knew what peanuts were, when she 
heard the circus boys and men shouting about 
them. 

“So that is a circus, is it?” asked little Slicko, 
as she looked at the big, white tents, all gay with 

50 


Slicko and Turn Turn 51 

colored flags, fluttering in the wind, and heard 
the nice music. 

“Yes,” answered Mappo, “that is a circus.” 

“And you ran away from it — you ran away 
from a nice place like that?” asked Slicko in 
surprise. 

“Oh, well, I got tired of being in a cage all 
the while,” said Mappo, the merry monkey. “I 
am going back again soon, I guess, as it is no 
fun to have to hunt for things to eat all the while. 
In the circus, though I did have to stay in a 
cage, I got all I wanted to eat without any trou- 
ble. Yes, I think I shall run back again, soon.” 

“I should think, if you had run away, they 
would come after you, to find you,” said Slicko. 

“They did come once,” spoke Mappo, with a 
laugh. “Once when I was in the woods, talking 
to Squinty, the comical pig, some circus men 
came after me to catch me, but I ran away. 
They haven’t caught me yet,” and he laughed 
and chattered, showing his many, white teeth. 

For a little while Slicko and Mappo sat in 
the woods looking at the circus, and then, all of 
a sudden, the little girl squirrel cried out: 

“Oh, Mappo! What are those funny animals, 
as big as houses, with two tails? What are 
they?” 

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” laughed Mappo, the 
merry monkey. “Two tails! Ho! Ho!” 


52 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Well, they do have two tails,” said Slicko. 
“What are they?” 

“That’s just what Squinty, the comical pig, 
wanted to know,” spoke Mappo. “He thought 
they had two tails also. Ha! Ha!” 

“Well, haven’t they?” asked Slicko, frisking 
her big tail. 

“No,” answered Mappo. “Those are ele- 
phants, and they have only one tail. The short 
thing is their tail, and the long thing, in front 
of them, hanging down, is their nose.” 

“Their nosel” cried Slicko. “What a funny 
nose!” 

“It is called a trunk,” explained Mappo. 
“But it is really the elephant’s nose. He 
breathes through it, but he can also use it like 
a hand. He picks up what he wants to eat in 
it, and it is hollow, like the hose with which 
they fill the circus tubs, so we animals can drink. 
Through his hollow trunk, the elephant sucks 
up water, squirting it down his throat when he 
is thirsty.” 

“What a funny animal an elephant is!” ex- 
claimed Slicko. “And how big! Especially 
that first one, with the two big, white things 
sticking out of his mouth. What are those?” 

“Those are his teeth, or tusks,” explained 
Mappo. “But you need not be afraid of that 
big elephant.” 


Slicko and Turn Turn 53 

“Why not?” asked Slicko. 

“Because he is the kindest, and most jolly ele- 
phant in the whole circus,” went on Mappo the 
monkey. “His name is Turn Turn, and if you 
were to meet him you would like him very 
much.” 

“Did Squinty, the comical pig, meet Turn 
Turn?” asked Slicko. 

“No, Squinty did not have a chance,” said 
Mappo, “but he saw him. If I can, I’ll call 
Turn Turn over here to see you. I’m sure you’d 
like him. And he’d give you a ride on his back.” 

“Oh, I’d be afraid to let him!” exclaimed 
Slicko. 

“Pooh! He wouldn’t hurt a fly!” laughed 
Mappo. “Lots of the children who come to the 
circus ride on Turn Turn’s back. He is very 
kind to them, and he would be kind to you. 
Only, if you should see him, be sure to tell him 
you’re not a rat or a mouse.” 

“Of course I’m not a rat or a mouse,” said 
Slicko. “Why should I tell Turn Turn, the ele- 
phant, that I am not, when he can see for him- 
self, if he has any eyes?” 

“Well, you do look a little like a great rat,” 
said Mappo. “Not that it’s any harm, Slicko. 
But, you see, Turn Turn and other elephants are 
very much afraid of rats and mice. I don’t 
know why, unless they are afraid the little crea- 


54 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

tures will run up inside their trunks and make 
them sneeze. But, anyhow, you’re not a rat or a 
mouse. And if you see Turn Turn, be sure to 
tell him that, the first thing.” 

“I will,” promised Slicko, “but maybe I won’t 
see Turn Turn to speak to.” 

“Oh, you might,” answered Mappo. “You 
can’t tell.” 

Just then the merry little monkey gave a jump, 
and cried out: 

“Ha! There come some circus men over this 
way. I think they are going to hunt for me 
again. I don’t want to be caught just yet, and 
be put back in my cage, so I’m going to run of! 
and hide in the woods again. Good-bye, Slicko. 
I am glad I met you.” 

“Good-bye, Mappo!” cried the little girl 
squirrel. “I am glad I met you, and I’m sorry 
you’re going to run away again. But I won’t 
tell them where you are. I guess I’ll go hide, 
too.” 

So Mappo, the merry monkey, ran off through 
the woods one way, and Slicko ran the other, and 
they did not see each other again for some time. 

I might say that I expect to tell you, in a 
book after this one, some of the adventures of 
Mappo, the merry monkey, but I have no room 
for him in this story. 

Slicko ran on through the woods, jumping 


Slicko and Turn Turn 55 

from tree to tree as she had been taught. She 
was all alone again, and she was feeling rather 
lonesome without Mappo, or for some of her 
squirrel friends. 

Slicko made her way back to the nest where 
her aunt had lived. She rather hoped Mrs. 
Whitey might be back there, waiting for her, but 
the nest in the tall tree was still empty. There 
was no sign of the nice old lady squirrel. 

“Well, I guess I had better gather some nuts, 
and hide them away,” thought Slicko. “I may 
have to stay in this nest a month or more, until 
papa and mamma make a new home for me, and 
my sister and brothers.” 

So Slicko scrambled down to the ground 
again, and began to gather nuts and acorns. 
These she carried up to the nest, hiding them 
away under the leaves. Some she put in a hol- 
low stump, on the ground not far away from the 
tree where the nest was. 

When Slicko had done this, she sat down on 
her tail, curling it up at her back like a feather, 
to take a rest, for she was rather tired. 

“My!” she thought, as she sat there. “What 
a lot of things have happened to me since I had 
to leave my home. An owl got after me, I have 
seen a circus, I met a monkey and I have seen 
a creature, with two tails, called an elephant. 
At least an elephant looks as though it had two 


56 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

tails, no matter what Mappo says,” went on 
Slicko. “I wonder if I shall ever meet Turn 
Turn, and tell him I am not a rat or a mouse? 
What a funny thing it would be if I did.” 

Slicko sat on the edge of the nest for some 
time, and then she began to feel hungry. 

“I wish I had some of those peanuts I heard 
them talking about in the circus,” said Slicko 
in a whisper. “I know they must be good, from 
what that city-park squirrel said. And I won- 
der what pink lemonade and ice cream cones 
are? I don’t believe they are good to eat.” 

You can see that Slicko had many things to 
learn — things that you know already, such as 
that ice cream cones are good to eat. But, if 
Slicko did not know that, she knew other things 
that you children do not know, such as where to 
find nuts, and how to gnaw through the shells, 
and get at the meat without using a nut cracker. 

All of a sudden, as Slicko was running toward 
the spring of water to get a drink, after her din- 
ner, she heard a crashing in the bushes. 

“I wonder if that is Mappo coming back,” 
thought Slicko. She looked through the trees, 
and saw something almost as large as a house, 
and dark in color, pushing through the bushes. 

“Why, it’s an elephant — it’s Turn Turn!” ex- 
claimed Slicko, as she saw the big creature, with 
his trunk on one end, and his tail on the other, 


Slicko and Turn Turn 57 

and two big, long, white teeth sticking out of 
his mouth. “Yes, that surely is Turn Turn!” 
Slicko spoke the last words out loud. 

“Ha! Who is calling to me?” asked the cir- 
cus elephant in his deep, rumbling voice. “Who 
is calling me?” 

“I spoke your name, Turn Turn,” said Slicko. 
“Here I am, by this old stump.” 

Turn Turn, the jolly elephant, looked at the 
little squirrel, and then he began to shiver and 
shake as hard as he could. He shook so hard 
that he shook a lot of pine cones down off a pine 
tree up against which he was leaning. 

“Oh my! Oh dear! This is terrible!” cried 
Turn Turn in his big, deep, rumbling voice. 
“Oh dear!” 


CHAPTER VI 


SLICKO GOES NUTTING 

S LICKO was so surprised, at first, by the 
cries of Turn Turn, and at the fear which 
the big elephant showed, that she did not 
know what to think. It really seemed that Turn 
Turn was afraid of her — of a little, jumping 
squirrel girl! 

Then Slicko happened to remember what 
Mappo had told her. 

“If ever you see Turn Turn,” the monkey had 
said, “tell him at once that you are not a mouse 
or a rat.” 

“Ha! That’s what I must do!” thought 
Slicko. “Turn Turn must be afraid of me. I’ll 
speak to him.” 

Scrambling half way up the trunk of a tree, to 
make herself higher, and nearer to the big ears 
of Turn Turn, Slicko cried out in her chattering 
voice : 

“I’m not a mouse, Turn Turn! I’m not a rat!” 
“Ha! What’s that?” asked the elephant, flap- 
ping one of his ears sideways, so he could hear 
better. “What did you say?” 

58 



“I’m only a little girl squirrel, and I wouldn’t hurt you 
for the world,” went on Slicko. Page S9 



Slicko Goes Nutting 61 

“I said I was not a rat or a mouse — I’m only 
a little girl squirrel, and I wouldn’t hurt you for 
the world,” went on Slicko. 

“Oh, I’m so glad!” cried the elephant, and he 
did not shiver and shake any more, and did not 
knock down any pine tree cones. 

As first it might seem funny for a squirrel to 
say she would not hurt an elephant, because an 
elephant is so large. But I have told you that 
elephants are sometimes afraid of even such a 
little thing as a mouse. 

“So you are not a rat, eh?” asked the elephant 
of Slicko. 

“No, Turn Turn, and I’m not a mouse, either,” 
answered the little girl squirrel. 

“Ha! How do you happen to know my 
name?” asked Turn Turn. 

“Mappo, the merry monkey, told me,” said 
the little squirrel girl. “And Mappo told me 
I was to tell you I was not a mouse or a rat. I 
won’t run up your trunk, and scare you.” 

“That’s good,” said Turn Turn. “Now I can 
see clearly that you are a little squirrel. I like 
you! But what about that little rascal, Mappo? 
Where is he? I came out to look for him. 
They want him back in his cage to ride around 
the circus ring on the back of a pony, and do 
other tricks to make the children laugh.” 

“Oh, he ran away,” said Slicko. “He thought 


62 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

he heard some men coming after him. He said 
he did not want to go back to the cage just yet 
He wants to have some fun in the woods.” 

“Well, well! He is a funny monkey,” said 
Turn Turn. “And I came all the way from the 
circus grounds to find him. But if he is gone, 
I won’t look any farther. I’ll go back to my 
tent, for the men may be coming after me.” 

“Oh, can’t you stay here with me a little while? 
I am so lonesome!” spoke Slicko. 

“Well, I might stay a short time,” Turn Turn 
said- “But what are you doing in the woods all 
alone, little Slicko?” 

Then the little squirrel girl told how she had 
had to run away from her own nest, and how 
she had not been able to find her aunt, and how 
she was now living all by herself in the woods. 

“Well, I wish I could stay with you, and keep 
you company, Slicko,” said Turn Turn. “But 
I belong back in the circus, and I guess you 
would rather jump through the tree branches, 
and skip about in them, than go as slowly as I 
have to go, crashing through the bushes. And I 
certainly never could climb a tree, and sleep in 
a nest, as you do,” went on Turn Turn, with a 
jolly laugh. 

“No, I suppose not,” said Slicko. “You are 
too big for a nest. Well, if you see Mappo, 
please send him back to me. I am so lonesome.” 


Slicko Goes Nutting 63 

“If I see him I will,” Turn Turn answered. 
And then he walked on back through the woods. 

“Good-bye, Slicko!” called the jolly elephant. 
“I have to be in the show this afternoon. I have 
to make believe play ball, and eat my dinner 
at a real table, and then I have to play the hand 
organ with my trunk. ThjDse are some of my 
tricks.” 

“Oh, I met a pig who said he could do tricks !” 
cried Slicko. 

“Was his name Squinty?” inquired the jolly 
elephant. 

“Yes,” said Slicko, “his name was Squinty.” 

“I met him, too,” said Turn Turn. “He was 
a comical little pig. But now I must hurry 
back,” and on he went, crashing his way through 
the bushes. Some day, in another book, I shall 
tell you all the adventures of Turn Turn, the 
jolly elephant. 

Slicko felt more lonesome than ever when the 
elephant had left her. She did not know what 
to do, and she wanted, more than ever, to see 
her mamma and papa, and sister and brothers 
again. Then, all at once, Slicko thought of 
something. 

“Oh, I forgot to ask Turn Turn to give me a 
ride on his back!” exclaimed Slicko. “Mappo 
said he would, as he was such a kind elephant. 
I’m going to call to him.” 


64 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

So Slicko called, in her chattering voice : 

“Turn Turn! Turn Turn!” 

“Yes, I hear you. What is it?” asked the ele- 
phant, stopping. 

“Would you please give me a ride on your 
back,” begged Slicko. “Mappo, the merry 
monkey, said you gave children at the circus 
rides, and I am so little you would hardly feel 
me.” 

“Of course I’ll give you a ride!” cried Turn 
Turn. “I thought I was forgetting something,” 
he went on, as he crashed back through the 
bushes. “I meant to invite you for a little ride 
on my back,” went on Turn Turn. “Why, I 
shouldn’t feel you any more than I should a 
feather, Slicko. Besides, I am very strong; I 
could carry ten children on my back, and hardly 
know it.” 

“Oh, indeed you must be very strong!” cried 
the little squirrel girl. 

Turn Turn, with a jolly noise that sounded as 
much like a laugh as any elephant can make, 
stood under the branch of the tree on which 
Slicko was perched. 

“Hop down, little squirrel,” invited the big, 
jolly elephant. Down hopped Slicko, landing 
on the back of Turn Turn, and then what a fine 
ride she had! 

Turn Turn could step over bushes that would 


Slicko Goes Nutting 65 

have taken Slicko some time to climb, and some 
bushes Turn Turn trampled under his big feet 
as though they were straw. 

Other bushes the elephant pushed his big body 
through, as easily as the clown in the circus 
jumps off the horse’s back through the paper 
hoop. 

“Do you like riding on my back?” asked Turn 
Turn, swinging along. 

“Oh, it is just fine!” cried Slicko, as she sat 
there, with her tail held over her head like a 
sun umbrella. “But don’t go too far with me, 
Turn Turn, please.” 

“I won’t,” the elephant said. And pretty soon 
he turned back with Slicko, and left her on the 
same branch from which she had jumped — 
right near her aunt’s nest. 

“Well, good-bye once more, Slicko,” called 
Turn Turn. “I may see you again to-morrow. 
And if you meet that Mappo, tell him he is 
wanted back in the circus.” 

“I’ll tell him,” promised Slicko. 

Once more the little jumping girl squirrel was 
all alone in the big woods. Somewhere in the 
forest were her father and mother, and her sister 
and brothers were somewhere about. But just 
where, Slicko did not know. 

“ Well,” thought the little creature, in a way 
squirrels and other anitrals have of thinking, 


66 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“well, I guess I shall have to stay alone to-night 
again. And perhaps for many more nights and 
days. I wonder what will become of me, and 
if I shall ever see my folks again. Oh dear!” 

Slicko felt a little sad for a moment, but then* 
she knew that she would have to be brave, and 
do things for herself, since there was no one to 
help her. 

“I think I’ll put some more leaves, and some 
cotton from the milkweed plant, in Aunt 
Whitey’s nest,” thought Slicko. “That will 
make it warmer.” 

Fixing up the nest so it would be nicer to stay 
in took Slicko until nearly dark. Then, after 
she had carried up some nuts to the nest, so she 
would have them ready for morning, Slicko 
curled up in the soft leaves and went to sleep. 

Nothing bothered her this night. No bad old 
owl, with big, round, staring eyes, tried to get 
[the little squirrel. Perhaps the owl, which had 
tried it before, was sure the nest was empty, and 
that he could not get anything to eat from it. 
At any rate the owl did not come, and Slicko was 
glad of it. 

In the morning, after her breakfast, having 
had a drink and washed at the spring, Slicko 
said: 

“I think I had better go off in the woods nut- 
ting, to-day. I shall need many nuts to eat, if 


Slicko Goes Nutting 67 

I have to stay here all winter, and I had better 
begin to gather them now before they are all' 
gone.” 

Slicko knew, as do all squirrels, the best places 
in the woods to look for nuts. Soon the little 
girl squirrel had found many chestnuts, acorns, 
hickory nuts and beech nuts. These she carried, 
a few at a time, up to her aunt’s nest-house. 

“If Aunt Whitey should come back, there 
would be enough for her and me too,” thought 
Slicko. 

The store-house of the nest was almost full of 
nuts, but still Slicko was not satisfied. 

“I must get more,” she said to herself, “for 
we may have a long winter, with much snow.” 
Well, Slicko knew how hard the winter was for 
squirrels, and all animals. 

So the next day Slicko went of! nutting again. 
She had not gone very far through the woods be- 
fore she came to a little grassy place, and there, 
in the middle of it, Slicko saw a nice pile of nuts, 
all gathered up, ready to be taken away. 

“Oh, that’s just fine!” thought Slicko to her- 
self. “The nuts are all in a nice heap, and I 
don’t have to pick them up, one by one, and 
carry them home. I can take a whole paw full 
at once.” 

Now Slicko was a wise little squirrel in some 
ways. But she had many things yet to learn. 


68 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

She did not stop to think that nuts in the woods 
never heap themselves up in a pile without some 
animal or some person doing it. Slicko thought 
!the nuts were put there just for her. But it was 
all a trick, as you shall soon see. 

Of course Slicko did not at once jump down 
to get the nuts. She knew enough not to do 
that, for she had often been told some animal 
might be waiting to grab her. So she looked 
all around, and, seeing nothing, down she scram- 
bled. 

As Slicko came nearer to the pile of nuts, and 
saw how nice they looked, she said to herself : 

“Oh, there will be enough for all winter. 
How lovely!” 

But there was something else besides the nuts 
there on the ground, though Slicko did not see 
it. If she had noticed it, and had kept out of 
the way, she might not have had as many ad- 
ventures as she did have. But little squirrels 
are not always wise and smart, any more than 
real children are. 

Right up to the pile of nuts scampered Slicko. 
She took up some chestnuts in her paws, that 
were like little hands, and then, all of a sudden, 
something clicked, and snapped, and Slicko felt 
herself caught by one leg, and held tightly. 


CHAPTER VII 


SLICKO IS CAUGHT 

P OOR Slicko was so surprised at first, and 
her leg pained her so much, from what- 
ever it was that had grasped it, that the 
little squirrel lay quite still for a moment. Her 
heart beat very fast, and she thought of the many 
dangers, which her father and mother had told 
her might happen to little squirrels. 

“And I’m sure something dreadful has hap- 
pened to me!” thought Slicko, as she looked all 
around with her bright eyes. “Yes, something 
dreadful has happened. I wonder what it is. 
Can it be that an owl, or a hawk or a snake has 
caught me?” 

Slicko tried to think of these different birds 
and the snake, for each one has a different way 
of catching a squirrel, and Slicko wanted to make 
sure which it was that had hold of her. 

Then, as she heard no fluttering of wings, 
which she would have heard had it been a big 
bird which had caught her, and, as she did not 
hear the hiss of an angry snake, she felt sure it 
was none of those dangers. 

69 


70 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“But what can it be that has hold of my leg?” 
thought Slicko. 

She looked down, and there, partly hidden 
under the grass and the pile of nuts, where Slicko 
had not seen it before, was a steel trap. And 
her leg was caught in that trap, between two 
pieces of steel, that pressed together as hard as 
the rubber rollers of the wringer press on the 
clothes on washday. 

“Oh dear!” though Poor Slicko. “I am 
caught in a trap! Papa and mamma told me to 
be careful of traps, but I didn’t see this one. I 
guess I was thinking too much of the nuts. 
Oh dear! What shall I do? How can I get 
out?” 

That is what Slicko thought as she lay there, 
her leg in the trap, hurting her very much. All 
animals, when they are caught in a trap, at once 
begin to think of how they can get out. Some 
think one way, and some another, but they all 
think, or else how could some of them get out 
the way they do? Of course I don’t mean to 
say that animals think just the way we do, any 
more than they talk the way we do. But they 
italk and think in a language of their own. 

Slicko was not a very old squirrel, and this 
was the first time she had ever been in a trap. 
If she had been an older squirrel, she would not 
have gone near the pile of nuts, for an older 


Slicko is Caught 71 

squirrel would have been sure they were put 
there on purpose to fool some animal. 

But Slicko did not think. That was why she 
was caught in the trap. 

“Oh, I must get out!” chattered poor Slicko. 
“I must get away from here, or some one may 
come and catch me!” 

Slicko tried to pull her leg out of the trap, 
but the strong spring of it held the steel jaws 
tightly together. Some animal traps have sharp 
teeth on the steel jaws that spring together, and 
they hurt very much. But this trap was not that 
kind, and Slicko was glad of it. So the only 
thing that happened to her leg was that it was 
badly pinched, and squeezed tightly. 

Still she knew that if she did not pull herself 
away, something else dreadful might happen to 
her. 

“Well,” said Slicko to herself, when she had 
tried several times to pull her leg out and could 
not, “if I can’t get loose from the trap, maybe 
I can pull the trap with me, off into the woods, 
and I can find some other big man-squirrel to 
help me get loose. That’s what I’ll do.” 

But when Slicko tried to run off, with the trap 
still fastened to her leg, shejfound that she could 
not. The trap was chained to a tree, and Slicko 
was held fast. 

“Oh dear!” cried the little squirrel. “I’m 


72 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

never going to get loose. I wish my mamma or 
papa would come!” 

But Papa and Mamma Squirrel were away 
off in the woods, and they thought their little 
daughter was safe with her Aunt Whitey. They 
did not know all that had happened. 

Slicko tried and tried again to get out of the 
trap, or to pull the trap away with her, but she 
could not. Then, as she was pretty tired, and as 
her little heart was beating very fast, she lay 
down to rest. 

Finding some of the nuts close to her nose, 
she began to eat one, for she was quite hungry, 
even if she was fast in a trap. 

After Slicko had eaten a few nuts, she felt 
better. She was a little stronger, too, and she 
thought perhaps now she could get out of the 
trap, but, when she tried, the jaws of it held her 
as tightly as ever. 

“Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!” cried poor 
Slicko. 

All at once she heard, off in the woods, the 
sound of bushes being trampled down. Twigs 
and branches snapped and broke, and Slicko 
knew something was coming. 

“I hope it isn’t a bear, or any bad animal that 
will get me,” thought the little girl squirrel. 
With her bright eyes snapping, Slicko watched 
and waited. 


Slicko is Caught 73 

All of a sudden, through the bushes, straight 
for the place where Slicko lay, near the pile of 
nuts, came a boy. Slicko knew it was a boy be- 
cause he was just like the hunter-man, only 
smaller. But the boy had no gun, and Slicko 
was glad of that. However, there was a dog 
with him, and for that, Slicko was sorry. 

“Here, Rover! Rover!” called the boy to his 
dog, for Rover was running all about, sniffing 
under stones and bushes. “Here, Rover! Let’s 
see if we have anything in our trap,” the boy 
called. 

“ Ah ! so he is the one who put the trap here 
to catch me!” thought Slicko. She could under- 
stand some man or boy-talk, though she could 
not speak it herself, just as your dog understands 
how to run to you when you say : “Come here !” 
But, though he understands you, he cannot make 
you understand him. 

“Bow wow!” barked the dog with the boy. 
“Bow wow!” 

“Yes, I hear you. What is it?” the boy asked. 

“Bow wow ! Wow ! Wow !” barked the dog, 
and Slicko saw him looking straight at her. 

I guess the dog was trying to tell the boy there 
was something in the trap, but the boy didn’t un- 
derstand dog-talk very well. 

“Bow wow!” barked the dog again. And 
then, as Slicko tried to hide herself down under 


74 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

the leaves, where the dog could not see her, that 
dog barked louder than ever. 

“Bow wow! Wow! Wow! Woppity-wop- 
wow!” 

“Well, you’re making a lot of fuss!” ex- 
claimed the boy, as he pushed his way through 
the bushes. “Have you caught something, 
Rover, old boy?” 

“Bow wow! Yes!” answered the dog. 

Then the boy came up to the trap. 

“Ha! I have caught something!” he cried. 
“A squirrel, too! I thought I would if I piled 
up those nuts there, and hid the trap near them. 
Ha! I’ve caught a squirrel.” 

“Oh, what a mean boy you are!” said Slicko 
to herself. “You set the trap on purpose to 
catch me ! Oh, how mean !” 

Now this boy was not mean exactly, or cruel, 
as you shall soon see. He was only thoughtless, 
as most boys are. He never really intended to 
hurt the little squirrel. Perhaps he thought the 
fur on a squirrel’s leg was so thick that the trap, 
springing shut, would not hurt. And, really, 
Slicko was not hurt such a terrible lot. But she 
felt badly enough, let me tell you. 

“Yes, I have a squirrel!” the boy cried, and 
he seemed real glad of it. “Now I can take it 
home and tame it.” 

Slicko did not know what “tame” meant, but 


Slicko is Caught 75 

she thought if it meant being caught by your leg 
in a trap, that she would not like it at all. 

“Yes,” went on the boy, “I’ll take the squirrel 
home and tame it, and teach it tricks.” 

“Ha! Tricks!” said Slicko to herself. 
“Where have I heard that word before? Oh, 
I know! Squinty, the comical pig, could do 
tricks, and so could Turn Turn, the jolly ele- 
phant. 

“Well, maybe if this boy teaches me some 
tricks, it will not be so bad. Then I could go 
home and surprise Chatter, Fluffy and Nutto. 
I don’t believe they can do tricks.” 

Slicko watched the boy and dog. The dog 
was barking and jumping about in the leaves. 
He seemed quite excited at seeing the squirrel 
in the trap. 

“Quiet, Rover! Lie down!” said the boy, and 
Rover minded like the good dog he was. 

“Now, let’s see how I am going to get this 
little squirrel home,” the boy went on. “I ought 
to have brought a box.” 

. “I wonder if he means take me to his home or 
my home?” thought Slicko. “I guess he must 
mean his home, for he doesn’t know where mine 
is — I don’t know myself.” 

“I hope the trap didn’t break her leg,” the 
boy went on. “I don’t believe it did, for the 
spring wasn’t very strong.” 


76 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Oh, I’m sure my leg is broken,” thought poor 
Slicko. “It hurts very much.” 

The boy put out his hand very slowly to take 
the little squirrel out of the trap. 

“I wonder if you’ll bite,” he said. 

“Ha! That’s so. I can bite!” said Slicko out 
loud, but, to the boy, her talk only sounded like 
chattering. 

Slicko had sharp teeth, and very strong. They 
had to be, for with them she had to gnaw off the 
shell of hard hickory nuts. So Slicko knew she 
could bite fiercely if she wanted to. 

“But I don’t know that I want to,” thought 
Slicko. “If I bite, the boy will be angry at me, 
and if he is to teach me tricks, it will be better 
if we are friends. No, I won’t bite him, though 
I could if I wanted to.” 

Slowly and carefully, the boy put out his hand 
toward Slicko. 

“I wish I had a thick pair of gloves,” he said. 
“Then if you bit, it wouldn’t hurt. I got bit by 
a squirrel once, and I don’t want it to happen 
again.” 

“I won’t bite you,” said Slicko, though of 
course the boy could not understand her. Now 
his hand was on the soft fur of Slicko’s back, and 
he stroked her gently. 

“Poor little squirrel,” said the boy. “I’m 
sorry you were caught in the trap, and I hope 


Slicko is Caught 77 

you’re not hurt much. I — I guess I’m never 
going to set any more traps.” 

•The boy felt sorry now, for poor Slicko looked 
at him with such a sorrowful look in her bright 
eyes, that it really seemed as if she were crying 
tears of pain — that is, if squirrels can cry. They 
can feel pain, at any rate. 

So you see, though it was a sad thing for Slicko 
to be caught in a trap, in one way it was a good 
thing, for it taught the boy a lesson, and made 
him more kind-hearted. 

“Til soon have you loose, little squirrel,” the 
boy went on. Then he quickly pressed on the 
spring of the trap with one hand, while he held 
Slicko with the other. The jaws of the trap 
came open, and Slicko’s leg was loose. And 
oh! how good it felt not to be squeezed as she 
had been. 

Then, all of a sudden, Slicko felt herself lifted 
up, and put into a soft, dark place — a place as 
dark as the deepest, darkest part of the nest at 
home — the cellar part where the nuts were 
stored away for winter. 


CHAPTER VIII 


SLICKO’S NEW HOME 

S LICKO, the jumping squirrel, found her- 
self all huddled up in a heap in the soft, 
dark place. She did not feel much like 
jumping just then — indeed she could not have 
jumped if she had wished, for there was no 
room. 

Besides, her leg, that had been caught in the 
trap, hurt her quite a lot, though not so much as 
it had at first. 

“I — I wonder where I am,” thought Slicko, 
as she tried to look about her. Soon she could 
see better than at first, and, as a squirrel’s eyes 
are made to see in the dark, much as are the eyes 
of the owl-bird, Slicko could soon make out 
where she was. 

She was down inside a sort of bag, very soft 
and cozy, but even though it was so soft, Slicko 
could not get out. She tried, but there was no 
hole. Even the top, through which she had been 
put in, was tightly closed. 

Slicko tried her teeth on some of the soft 
stuff, but it tickled her little red tongue, so she 
stopped. 


78 


Slicko’s New Home 79 

“I wonder where I am,” thought Slicko, again. 

And, though she did not know it, she was in 
the boy’s coat pocket, and he had pinned the flap 
down over it, so the little squirrel could not get 
out. Later on Slicko took many trips in that 
same pocket, and was not afraid, but this time 
her little heart beat very fast, for she did not 
know what was going to happen to her. 

‘Well, I don’t believe I’ll try to catch any 
more squirrels,” said the boy. “I’ll take this 
trap home with me.” 

“Ah, that’s good!” thought Slicko. “If he 
takes the trap away, no more squirrels will be 
caught. That’s very good!” 

“And I guess I’ll take some of these nuts home 
to feed my new squirrel,” went on the boy, speak- 
ing out loud the way boys do sometimes, es- 
pecially if they have their dogs with them. 

“Bow wow!” barked Rover, the dog. “Bow 
wow!” That was his way of saying that he, 
too, thought it would be a good thing to take 
home some of the nuts. 

Slicko heard the nuts rattling into the other 
pocket of the boy who had caught her, and then 
she felt him walking off with her. Through the 
woods he went, as Slicko could tell, for she 
heard the rattle and crack of the bushes, as the 
boy pushed his way through them. 

After what seemed to Slicko a long time, she 


80 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

fell asleep in the boy’s pocket, and, when she 
awoke, she was in such a bright light that it 
made her eyes blink very fast. The boy had 
opened his pocket, and had taken Slicko out in 
his hands. 

“Oh, what have you got, Bob?” asked a small 
girl, one of the boy’s sisters. 

“A little squirrel,” he answered. 

“Where did you get it?” asked another girl. 

“I caught it in a trap in the woods, Sallie,” 
the boy answered. 

“Oh, how cruel, to catch a poor little squirrel 
in a trap !” exclaimed the first little girl. 

“Oh, I didn’t hurt it,” said Bob. “And, when 
it gets tame I’m going to teach it some tricks.” 

“Are you going to put the squirrel in a cage 
with a wheel?” asked the girl whose name was 
Mollie. 

“Yes, as soon as papa gets me that kind of a 
cage,” the boy said. “But, until then, I’ll let 
it stay in a box.” 

“I hope it doesn’t get away like Squinty, your 
pig, did,” spoke Sallie. 

“Oh, no, I won’t let the squirrel get away,” 
said the boy. 

“Ha!” thought Slicko. “Squinty the pig! I 
wonder if this is the boy who made a pet of 
Squinty. If it is the same one, I am sure he will 
be kind to me.” 



“Oh, how cruel, to catch a poor little squirrel in a trap !” 
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Slicko 5 s New Home 83 

“Where do you suppose Squinty is now?” 
asked Sallie. 

“Back in the pen with the other pigs,” the 
boy replied. “After he got away, he grew too 
big to keep for a pet. But this squirrel won’t 
grow too big.” 

“I’m sorry for that,” thought Slicko. “For 
if I grew big enough I, too, might be allowed to 
go back to my home. But I will wait and see 
what will happen. I will be as good as I can, 
and learn all the tricks I can, and the boy and 
his sisters will love me.” 

“Oh, isn’t she cute!” cried one of the little 
girls, as she put her finger on the soft fur of 
Slicko’s back. 

“Look out, she might bite!” exclaimed the 
other little girl. 

“Indeed I’ll not!” chattered Slicko. “I 
wouldn’t be so impolite as that.” 

That is what Slicko said, but of course the 
boy and his sisters could not understand. But 
they could see that Slicko was very gentle, and, 
as she lay there, in the boy’s warm hand, the two 
little girls petted her, and loved Slicko. 

“Now I’ll put her in a box,” the boy said, 
“and give her some nuts to eat and some water 
to drink.” 

“That will be fine!” thought Slicko, for she 
was very thirsty and hungry. 


84 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

A little later she found herself in a small 
wooden box. In one corner were some nuts, in 
another a dish of water, and in a third corner 
some nice soft cotton, almost like the kind that 
comes on the inside of the pods of the milkweed 
plant. 

“Well, this isn’t like my home-nest in the 
tree, nor like Aunt Whitey’s nest,” thought 
Slicko, “but as long as I have to stay here, I 
might as well make the best of it. I can eat and 
drink, anyhow. I shall not be hungry or thirsty.” 

Slicko took up a hickory nut in her paws, 
that were like little hands, and, sitting up on her 
hind legs, with her tail spread out over her like 
an umbrella, she began to eat the meat of the 
nut. 

“Oh, look!” cried one of the girls, who was 
watching. “Come and see the squirrel eat, 
Sallie!” 

“Ha! It isn’t so wonderful — just to eat,” 
thought Slicko. “I wonder how those girls 
would like it, if I came to look on every time 
they ate!” 

Slicko could not get away, so she had to eat 
with the boy’s sisters looking on. Not that Slicko 
minded very much, for she was beginning to like 
her new home, and she felt sure that she would 
be in no danger from dogs, or other animals. 
And if she got enough to eat, water to drink, and 


Slicko’ s New Home 85 

had a nice, warm place to sleep in, what more 
could a squirrel ask? 

Slicko’s leg hurt her a little bit, but it was get- 
ting better all the while, and she was feeling hap- 
pier and happier every minute. T rue, she would 
have been very glad if her papa and mamma 
and her sister and brothers had been with her, 
but then she knew she could not have everything 
she wanted. 

“And it’s just wonderful that the same boy 
who has me had Squinty,the comical pig, for his 
pet,” thought Slicko. “Squinty said the boy was 
good and kind, and I’m sure he’ll teach me some 
nice tricks. I shall love to learn tricks.” 

For two or three days Slicko stayed in the box 
where the boy had first put her. Every day 
she was given fresh water, and this was what she 
needed almost more than she did nuts to eat. All 
animals need water, especially in hot weather, so 
if ever you have a squirrel, or any other pets, 
see to it that they have all the cool, clean water 
they wish to drink. 

“I wonder when my new cage is to come, 
whatever a cage is,” thought Slicko, after she 
had been in the box about a week. “I am 
anxious to see it, and I wonder what that wheel 
is the boy spoke about.” 

Slicko was soon to know, however. 

One day, when Slicko was eating nuts in her 


86 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

box, she looked up at the top, over which had 
been fastened a bit of wire so she could not get 
out, and, looking down at her, Slicko saw the 
boy’s big dog staring in. 

“Bow wow!” barked the dog. 

“Chatter-chat! Chit-chat-chatter- r-r-r-r-r-r!” 
went Slicko. 

That was her way of saying: “How do you 
do?” 

She did not feel afraid, for she knew the dog 
could not get at her in the box. 

“Oh, Bob! The dog is after your squirrel!” 
suddenly called Mollie. 

“Yes, come quickly!” shouted Sallie. 

“Bow wow !” barked the dog. And he seemed 
to say: 

“Don’t worry! I wouldn’t hurt that little 
squirrel for the world. I just want to look at 
her.” 

“Oh, Rover won’t hurt Slicko,” said the boy, 
who had given his new pet the same name as had 
the squirrel’s mamma. In fact, Slicko was so 
smooth and slick, and so clean, that it would 
have been hard to get any other name to fit her 
as well as did Slicko. 

“See, the dog and squirrel will be good 
friends,” said the boy. With that he reached in 
and lifted Slicko out of the box, holding her 
close to Rover. 


Slicko’ s New Home 87 

Rover put out his red tongue and touched 
Slicko with it. And Slicko put out her tiny 
paw and touched Rover. That was her way of 
shaking hands. 

“See, they are friends!” said the boy. “Soon, 
when Slicko gets a little tamer, I’m going to let 
her run out of the cage, and go all over the 
house.” 

“She may run away, like Squinty, the comical 
pig,” said Mollie. 

“Oh, I don’t believe she will,” answered the 
boy. 

Just then some one called : 

“Bob! Bob! Where are you? Come here! 
The new cage for your squirrel has come!” 

“Oh, it’s my new home!” thought Slicko. “I 
wonder what it is like.” 


CHAPTER IX 


SLICKO DOES SOME TRICKS 

S LICKO was put back into the wooden 
box, and Bob fastened the wire over the 
top again. 

“Ha! The boy didn’t need to do that!” 
thought the little squirrel. “I won’t run away 
• — at least not until I see my new house.” 

The boy and his sisters went to where their 
mamma had called them, and soon they came 
running back again. The boy carried a big 
wire cage, something like the one in which 
Slicko had once seen a canary bird flying about. 
But this new cage for Slicko was much larger, 
and, at one end, was a big round wheel of wire, 
something like a merry-go-round, only it whirled 
the other way, like a hoop, and there were no 
wooden animals, or seats, on this squirrel wheel. 
“What can it be for?” thought Slicko. 

Bob, the boy, lifted Slicko up out of her little 
wooden box. 

“Let’s see how you like your new cage,” he 
said. 


88 


Slicko Does Some Tricks 89 

“Oh, but there’s nothing for her to eat or drink 
in it,” cried one of the girls. 

“I’ll put in some nuts and water,” Bob said. 
“Come, Slicko, go into your new cage.” 

Bob opened a little wire door, and thrust 
Slicko through it into the cage. The door went 
shut with a click and a slam, that reminded 
Slicko of the time she had been caught in the 
trap. She looked around quickly, wondering if 
there were a trap near her now. But she saw 
only the clean, new, wire cage, with little dishes 
for nuts and water, a little covered-over dark 
place, where she could crawl in during the day, 
and go to sleep in the dark; and then there was 
that great big wire wheel, that spun around very 
easily when Bob touched it with his finger. 

“Oh, I’m never going in that!” thought Slicko, 
somewhat afraid. 

She crouched down, and looked carefully all 
around her new cage. She wanted to see if there 
were any danger near. But all she saw, through 
the wires, was the boy, his two sisters and Rover, 
the dog she had grown to like very much. 

“Oh, I guess it will be all right here,” thought 
Slicko. “I will not be afraid.” 

“Doesn’t she look cute in there?” asked Mol- 
lie, laughing. 

“She certainly does,” agreed Sallie. 

“You wait until I teach her some tricks,” 


90 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

spoke the boy. “Then she’ll be worth looking 
at.” 

Slicko made up her mind she would learn the 
tricks as soon as she could. 

“Then I’ll be like Squinty, the comical pig,” 
she said to herself. 

Soon Slicko felt quite at home in her new 
cage. She went inside the little bedroom, that 
was pretty dark, even in the daytime. Squir- 
rels, and all wild animals, like to be in the dark, 
and off by themselves, once in a while. 

Inside the little bedroom, which was made of 
tin and wire, like the rest of the cage, was some 
soft cotton, and in this Slicko could cuddle up 
and keep warm, even when winter came. And, 
as I have said, there was a dish for nuts and an- 
other for water. These the boy filled, and soon 
Slicko was eating her first meal in her new home. 

“I wish she’d go in the wheel, and ride it,” 
said Mollie. 

“She will, after a while,” the boy said. “I 
know how to make her.” 

Slicko wondered how he would do it, but she 
could not guess. 

For several days the little jumping squirrel 
lived in her new cage. The boy and his sisters 
would come to watch her, and bring her nice 
things to eat, so Slicko soon became real tame. 
Often other children would come to look at her. 


Slicko Does Some Tricks 91 

Sometimes the boy would take her out, and 
put her in his pocket, as he had done on the day 
he brought Slicko from the woods, after she had 
been caught in the trap. Then Slicko would 
stick her head out, just a little bit, and all the 
children would exclaim: 

“Oh, isn’t she cute!” 

Slicko did not know exactly what “cute” 
meant, but she tried to be as nice and polite as 
she could. 

“Have you taught your squirrel any tricks 
yet?” asked Mollie of her brother, one day. 

“No, but I am going to try one now. Do you 
want to watch?” 

“Indeed I do!” said the little girl. 

Slicko saw the boy take all the nuts out of the 
eating dish. 

“I wonder what he is doing that for,” the little 
squirrel thought. “I’m hungry, and I want to 
eat those nuts.” But the boy took every one. 

“What are you going to do?” asked his sis- 
ter. 

“You’ll soon see,” he answered with a laugh. 
“I am going to teach Slicko her first trick.” 

Then the boy placed two or three nice, sweet, 
juicy chestnuts inside the wheel of the squirrel 
cage. This wheel went around and around, just 
as a barrel rolls over the ground, only the wire 
wheel of the squirrel cage stayed right in the 


92 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

same place, whirling about as does a merry-go- 
round. 

‘‘Now, when Slicko goes in to get the nuts, 
she’ll make the wheel go around,” the boy said 
to his sisters. “The faster she runs, the faster 
the wheel will go, and she’ll be doing a trick.” 

“Oh, let’s watch her!” cried Sallie. 

“Well, you may watch all you like,” said 
Slicko to herself, “but I am not going in that 
wheel. I’m afraid!” 

So she stayed in the other part of the cage, 
looking at the chestnuts, and wishing she could 
get them, for she was getting more and more 
hungry every minute. 

“Maybe I can pull one out without going in 
the wheel myself,” thought Slicko. She reached 
her paw in through the little round hole that 
led into the wheel from her cage. She could al- 
most touch the chestnuts, but not quite. 

“There! She’s going in!” cried one of the 
girls softly. 

But Slicko did not go. 

“If she wasn’t afraid, she’d go in and have a 
ride,” the boy said. “Come on, Slicko,” he 
called, “it won’t hurt you.” 

Slicko did not want to. However, she kept 
getting more and more hungry, and those chest- 
nuts looked so good ! 

“I’m going to try it!” said the little jumping 


Slicko Does Some Tricks 93 

squirrel to herself, finally. “I don’t believe that 
boy would do me any harm.” 

Very slowly and carefully, Slicko stepped into 
the moving wheel. It rocked gently to and fro. 
As soon as the squirrel was all the way inside, it 
moved more. She felt as though she were fall- 
ing and then, so that she should not fall, she took 
two or three little steps. 

The wire wheel seemed to slide out from under 
her. It went whirling around, and the faster 
Slicko ran, the faster the wheel went. The 
little squirrel stayed right in the same place, but 
the wire wheel went round and round under her 
pattering feet. 

“There she goes!” cried Sallie. 

“Oh, see how fast she can run!” exclaimed 
Mollie. 

“Yes, she has learned to do the trick,” said the 
boy. “I thought she would get so hungry that 
she would go in after the chestnuts, and then 
she’d make the wheel whirl.” 

And that was just what Slicko had done. She 
was so surprised at the fast motion of the wheel 
that she did not think to eat the nuts inside. 
But now, after whirling about for some time, 
Slicko did not run so fast. The wheel went 
slower and slower, and finally stopped. The 
nuts, which had been rattling around with 
Slicko, dropped down beside her, and she began 


94 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

to eat them, sitting up on her hind legs, and 
holding them in her front paws, while she 
gnawed off the shell. 

“Oh, isn’t she just too cute for anything!” cried 
Sallie. 

“Just lovely,” said her sister, Mollie. 

“Well, that’s one trick,” the boy said. “It’s 
the easiest of all. Now that she knows the 
wheel won’t hurt her, she’ll often take a whirl 
in it.” 

“Yes,” said Slicko to herself, as she heard Bob 
say this, “I think I shall.” 

And, from then on, Slicko was no longer 
afraid of the whirling wheel of her cage. Bob 
did not have to put any more nuts in it to get 
her to go in. Slicko liked it, and went in her- 
self, several times a day. It gave her something 
to do — like playing a game. 

The cage where Slicko was kept was too small 
to let her run about and jump very much, and 
the wheel was just the very thing. On that, 
Slicko could pretend she was running a race, 
as she used to do with her brothers and sister in 
the woods. 

“Oh, I wonder what has become of Chatter, 
and all the rest of them,” thought Slicko many 
times, as she thought of her former home. “And 
I wonder if I shall ever see them again!” 

“What are you doing, Bob?” asked Mollie, 


Slicko Does Some Tricks 95 

one day as she saw her brother pasting some 
paper over a little wooden hoop. It was just like 
those the men in the circus jump through, only 
smaller. 

“I am getting ready for another trick for 
Slicko,” he said. 

“Do you think you can get her to jump 
through one of those paper covered hoops?” 
asked Sallie. 

“I think so,” replied Bob. “I’m going to 
try.” 

Slicko was quite tame by this time, and often 
would be allowed to run about the room, being 
let out of her cage. Sometimes Bob would sit 
in a chair, and put some nuts in his pocket. Then 
Slicko would run along on the floor, crawl up 
Bob’s leg, dive down into his pocket, and pull 
out the nuts. 

“That’s another trick,” Bob would say with 
a laugh. “My squirrel is getting to be very 
smart!” 

“But how are you going to get her to jump 
through a paper hoop?” asked Mollie. 

“I’ll soon show you,” said Bob. 

By this time he had two or three hoops all 
ready, pasted over with thin red, white and blue 
paper, so that they looked very pretty indeed. 

“Now, Slicko,” said Bob, as he took the little 
squirrel out of her wire cage, “you are going to 


96 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

learn a new trick to-day. And I want you to 
pay strict attention, and do as I tell you.” 

Bob took a piece of sweet apple, of which 
Slicko was very fond, and put it on top of a 
little box on the dining-room table. Then he 
put Slicko down at the other end of the table, 
and stood near her, with one of the paper hoops 
in his hand. 

“Now, Slicko,” said Bob, as he pointed at 
the apple, “that is for you, if you do as I want 
you to do. Go get the apple, Slicko.” 

Slicko knew what apple was. She could 
smell it, and she thought it must be meant for 
her. She scampered toward it, but, when she 
had almost reached it she found Bob holding a 
paper hoop out in front of her. The hoop was 
between Slicko and the apple. 

Slicko started to go around to one side, to get 
out of the way of the hoop, but Bob moved it, 
so that it was still in front of her. 

“Well, I can go the other way,” thought 
Slicko. But, when she turned the other way, 
there was still the paper hoop in front of her. 
It was between her and the apple, and she wanted 
that apple very much. 

“Ha!” thought Slicko, “if Bob doesn’t take 
that paper hoop out of my way, I’ll jump 
right through it and get the apple anyhow!” 


CHAPTER X 


c 


SLICKO RUNS AWAY 

|OME on, get the apple, Slicko!” called 
Bob. 

“How can she, when you keep put- 
ting that paper hoop in front of her?” asked 
Bob’s sister Mollie. 

“She’ll go right through it,” said Sallie. 

“That’s just what I want her to do,” Bob an- 
swered, with a laugh. “It will be a fine trick.” 

Slicko did not understand all of this talk, but 
she did want that apple, and when she heard 
Bob say “trick,” she began to understand that, 
after all, perhaps the hoop was only put in front 
of her for fun. 

So the next time she ran toward the piece of 
apple on the table, and the boy moved the paper 
hoop in front of her, Slicko gave a sudden little 
jump, and, right through the paper she went, 
breaking a hole in it, and landing close to the 
piece of apple. 

“Hurrah 1” cried the boy. “There she goes!” 

“Oh, wasn’t that cute!” exclaimed Mollie. 

“Just too sweet for anything,” spoke Sallie. 
“I hope she didn’t hurt herself!” 

97 


98 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Hurt herself? Of course not!” cried Bob. 
“How could she, when the paper was so soft and 
thin? And she has learned another trick now, 
haven’t you, Slicko?” 

Slicko was too busy eating the apple to an- 
swer, even if she could have spoken boy lan- 
guage. She sat up on her hind legs, with her 
tail spread out over her head, and, holding the 
bit of apple in her paws, which were like little 
hands, she nibbled at the sweet pulp. 

“Will she do it again?” asked Mollie. 

“I guess so,” answered the boy. “I’ll try her 
once more. This time I’ll give her a nut.” 

When Slicko had finished eating the apple, 
Bob took her gently up in his hands, and set her 
down at one end of the table. On the other end 
he placed some pieces of hickory nut meats, with 
the shells off. 

“Ah, ha!” thought Slicko. “They look good! 
I can eat them without stopping to gnaw off the 
hard shell.” 

The little jumping squirrel started toward the 
pile of nut meats, but, before she could reach 
them, Bob put in front of her another hoop, cov- 
ered with paper. 

Just as she had done at first, Slicko tried to 
run to one side, but Bob kept the hoop in front 
of her. Slicko had forgotten about jumping 



































































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Slicko Runs Away 101 

through, even though she had done it only a little 
while before. 

Most animals are that way when first they 
learn a new trick. They forget very easily, until 
they have done it over and over again. It was 
this way with Slicko. 

But as Bob kept the hoop in front of her, and 
as she kept smelling the nice nuts at the other 
end of the table, it came into Slicko’s head that 
she must jump through the paper of the hoop 
to get them, just as she had done to get the piece 
of apple. 

“Here I go!” thought the little squirrel. 

She gave another little jump, and right 
through the second paper hoop she went, coming 
down on the table close to the nut meats, which 
she began to eat ; and very good they tasted, in- 
deed. 

“Ha! She did the trick again!” cried Bob. 

“What a cunning squirrel!” exclaimed Mollie. 

“She’s just too dear for anything,” said Sallie. 

Slicko understood a little of this talk, and she 
was glad she had pleased the children. She was 
beginning to be very happy in her new home, 
and she liked Bob and his sisters very much. 

The boy had Slicko jump through the paper 
hoops several more times that day, and then he 
put her back in the big wire cage, and let her 


102 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

rest. Wild animals do not like to be doing 
tricks all the while. They get tired just as you 
do. 

The next day Slicko did the hoop tricks again, 
and soon she was so smart that she knew, as 
soon as she saw Bob with the paper-covered 
things, that she was to do her jumping trick. 
She did not have to have a piece of apple placed 
at one end of the table to make her jump, now. 

But, each time, after she was through doing 
her little tricks, she was given something good 
to eat. That is always the way to train wild 
animals or pets — be kind to them when they 
have done what you want them to do. 

Slicko lived in the house with the boy for sev- 
eral weeks. The weather had gotten colder 
now, and winter would soon be here. Slicko 
could tell this, for sometimes the windows of 
the room, in which her cage stood, were left 
open, and she could feel the cold wind. But 
her fur coat was growing warm and thick now, 
and she would not have minded being outdoors, 
no matter how cold it was, if she had plenty to 
eat. 

But, after all, Slicko was rather glad that she 
had a good home for the coming winter. She 
remembered how, when she had lived in the 
home-nest, she had heard her papa and mamma 
talking in their chatter language about how hard 


Slicko Runs Away 103 

it was, sometimes, to find things to eat, when the 
white snow covered the ground. Squirrels al- 
ways store away nuts, but sometimes they can 
not get enough, and sometimes the winter is so 
long that they eat up all they have in their nest, 
before it is time for spring to come and bring 
other food. 

“But that can’t happen to me here,” thought 
Slicko. “No matter how cold it is outside, or 
how much snow there is, I shall be warm in this 
house, and Bob and his sisters will give me 
enough to eat. After all, maybe it is a good 
thing Bob caught me and brought me here.” 

Bob taught his pet squirrel other tricks. He 
taught Slicko to crawl right up to his pocket, 
and go to sleep there. He also taught her to 
go into his pockets after lumps of sugar, and 
other good things to eat. When she had found 
them, she would come out and sit on his shoulder 
to eat them. This always made the children 
who saw it laugh, and they thought Slicko was 
a very cute squirrel indeed. 

Bob’s sisters tried to teach Slicko tricks. But 
they wanted to make a sort of doll of her, and, 
though Slicko was a girl squirrel, she knew noth- 
ing of dolls. 

“Oh, wouldn’t she look cute dressed up in one 
of my dolls’ dresses?” asked Mollie of Sallie, 
one day. 


104 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Yes, indeed! Let’s try it!” exclaimed Sallie. 

They took Slicko out of her cage, and, though 
they handled her very gently, the little squirrel 
did not like being put inside a doll’s dress. 

“Oh, isn’t she too cute!” cried Mollie. 

“Yes,” said Sallie. “Now let’s put her in the 
doll carriage and wheel her about.” 

But this was too much for Slicko. It was 
bad enough to be dressed up as a doll, but when 
it came to being put in a thing on wheels, and 
ridden about the room, that was more than 
Slicko would stand. She did not mind her wire 
wheel in the cage, but she did not like to be 
wheeled in the carriage. 

Out she jumped, and with her paws she pulled 
off the doll’s dress that had been tied on her. 
Then, chattering as loudly as she could, she ran 
to her cage, and hid in the little place where 
she slept. There Mollie and Sallie could not 
get her. 

“Oh, well, never mind. Let’s play with our 
real dolls,” said Mollie. “Maybe Bob wouldn’t 
like us to dress up his squirrel.” 

“All right,” agreed Sallie. And Slicko was 
glad to be left alone. 

She did not mind when Bob taught her tricks. 

“If I learn a number of them,” thought Slicko, 
“I shall be as smart as Squinty, the comical pig, 
or as Mappo, the monkey, or Turn Turn, the 


Slicko Runs Away 105 

jolly elephant. I wonder if I shall ever see them 
again.” 

Slicko felt a little sad when she thought of 
her animal friends. Then she began thinking 
of her father and mother, of her sister and 
brothers, and of Aunt Whitey. 

“I wonder where Aunt Whitey could be?” 
thought Slicko. “I should like to see her 
again.” 

At these times Slicko became a little lonesome 
and homesick. But, whenever she was begin- 
ning to get too sad, Bob would come, take her 
out of the cage, and either give her something 
good to eat, or put her through some of her 
tricks. Then Slicko would be happy once more. 

As the days went on, Slicko became so tame 
that the door of her cage was never shut. She 
could come and go as she pleased, and she 
roamed all about the house. She would come 
to the dinner table, and sit up near Bob, who 
would feed her from his plate. And then she 
would scramble into his pocket, to get a bit of 
sugar. 

The winter came, with its cold and snow. 
Slicko stayed in the warm house. Then the 
days began to get warmer. Spring was coming. 
One day it was warm enough for the windows 
of the room, where Slicko’s cage , stood, to be 
opened. The little squirrel smelled the fresh 


106 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

air of spring. She seemed to smell the cool, 
green woods, where the trees were just begin- 
ning to put on their new green dresses of leaves. 

Something seemed to be calling to Slicko. 
She heard the hum of bees, the song of birds and 
the chatter of other squirrels. A strange feel- 
ing came over Slicko. She wanted to run away 
to the woods. 

She looked all around the room. No one was 
there. The door of her cage was open. Softly, 
on her pattering feet, Slicko ran to the window. 
She climbed to the sill, looked out into the gar- 
den, and off to the woods. Then Slicko jumped 
down into the soft, green grass, and ran away. 


CHAPTER XI 


SLICKO’S BIG ADVENTURE 

S LICKO had been a tame squirrel for sev- 
eral months. Before that, and for a 
longer time, she had been just a little wild 
squirrel, living in the woods, and doing as all 
wild squirrels do. 

So, when she jumped out of the window and 
ran away, she became, for the time being, just 
as wild as she ever had been. For a little while 
she forgot all the tricks Bob had taught her, 
and she forgot the nice pieces of apples and the 
nuts he used to give her. Slicko was just the 
same, now, as were her brothers, or her sister — 
a little, wild animal. 

She ran over the grass, crouching down low, 
and taking big jumps so no one would see her. 
Most of all, Slicko wanted to keep out of the 
way of Muffins, the big black cat at Bob’s house. 

This cat was not a good friend of Slicko’s. 
Often, when the little squirrel was not watch- 
ing, the cat would come quietly up close to her, 
and look at Slicko with very hungry eyes. 
Sometimes Bob would see Muffins, and drive 
her away. 


108 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Muffins wouldn’t hurt your squirrel,” said 
Mollie, who liked the cat very much. 

“Of course she wouldn’t,” said Sallie. 
“Rover, your dog, wouldn’t hurt Slicko, so why 
would our cat?” 

“Well, a cat is different from a dog,” Bob 
would say. “A cat can’t help sneaking up, and 
wanting to jump on anything it sees moving. 
But a dog only barks, and makes a big fuss. 
He doesn’t really do any harm. Of course I 
don’t mean to say Muffins would intend to do 
Slicko any harm, but I won’t give Muffins a 
chance.” 

So Bob never let the big cat come near his 
squirrel, and Slicko was glad of it, for Muffins 
had very hungry eyes. And now, when Slicko 
was running away, and Bob was not there to 
look after her, and when there was no strong 
wire cage to run and hide in, Slicko was very 
careful. She looked on both sides of her, as 
she ran along over the grass. Slicko wa9 not 
going to be caught, if she could avoid it. 

The little squirrel came to a tree, and up it 
she scrambled as fast as she could go. It was 
the first tree she had climbed since Bob had 
caught her in the trap, and Slicko was glad to 
find she had not forgotten how. Her leg, that 
had been pinched in the trap, was now as strong 
as the other ones. 


Slicko’s Big Adventure 109 

Sticking her claws in the bark of the tree, 
Slicko went up, away to the top. 

“There !” exclaimed the little squirrel, “if 
Muffins comes after me, she’ll have trouble in 
reaching me.” 

Cats can climb trees, too, almost as well as 
squirrels can, though not so fast. But a cat does 
not very often go way up to the top of a tree, as 
Slicko had done. 

The little runaway squirrel sat down on a tree 
branch and looked about her. The tree was 
just putting out its first green leaves, and the 
wind was blowing the branches gently to and 
f ro, like a swing. 

“Oh, this is lovely!” thought Slicko. “It is 
much nicer than my wheel in the cage. I am 
glad I ran away. I am never going back in the 
big house again.” 

You see, after all, though wild animals may 
seem contented to be pets, they always want to 
be free as they were at first. 

Slicko began to look all over the tree to see 
if any nuts grew on it. She was not yet old 
enough to know that there would be no nuts 
until fall. Nor could she tell that the tree she 
was in was a pear tree, and never grew nuts. 
There would be no pears, either, until late in the 
summer. 

Slicko was beginning to feel hungry. True, 


110 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

she had eaten her breakfast before running 
away, but now she felt hungry again. There 
seemed to be nothing to eat in the tree where she 
was hiding. It was no fun to be hungry. 

“I must see about getting something to eat,” 
thought Slicko. “I’ll stay up here awhile, and 
then I’ll go down and hunt for some nuts or 
bits of apple. Oh, I’ll have a fine time, and I 
won’t have to jump through paper hoops, or do 
any tricks.” 

Pretty soon Slicko, who sat on a limb of the 
tree where she could look at the window of the 
room where she used to live, heard the voice of 
Bob, her little master. 

“I say!” cried Bob, “have any of you seen 
Slicko?” 

“She was in her cage, a little while ago,” said 
Mollie. “Isn’t she there now?” 

“No, and her cage is open, and so is the win- 
dow of the room,” went on Bob. “I’m afraid 
she has run away, or else maybe Muffins has 
caught her.” 

“Oh, you bad boy, to say such a thing!” cried 
Sallie. “Muffins wouldn’t take Slicko. More 
likely it’s Rover!” 

“Rover wouldn’t either,” said Bob. “I won- 
der where Slicko can be. Here, Slicko! 
Slicko!” he called. “Come and get some nuts! 
Come and get some sugar!” 


Ill 


Slicko’s Big Adventure 

Slicko, up in the tree, heard Bob, but, though 
she was very hungry, she would not go down 
and get in his pocket, as she used to do. Slicko 
made up her little squirrel mind that as long as 
she had run away, she would not go back so 
soon. 

“I want to have a little fun,” she said to her- 
self. 

Bob called and called again. He looked all 
over for Slicko, even up in the trees, but Slicko 
managed to hide behind a leafy branch, and 
Bob could not see her. Bob even called Rover, 
thinking the dog might be able to help him find 
the lost squirrel. 

From her perch in the tree, Slicko saw Bob 
and Rover running about. The dog barked: 

“Bow wow ! Bow wow ! Bow wow !” as if he 
were calling Slicko to come down. But the lit- 
tle squirrel was not yet ready. 

“I know what I’ll do,” said Bob. “I’ll get 
some nuts and put them where Slicko can see 
them, close by the open window. I’ll set her 
cage there, too, on a chair in the room. Maybe 
she’s lost, and can’t find her way home. But 
perhaps she can smell the nuts, and when she 
comes for them, she’ll see her cage, and be glad 
to go back into it.” 

“Oh, yes, do that,” said Mollie. “Once when 
my canary bird flew away, I hung the cage on 


112 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

a tree outside, and left the door open. And, 
pretty soon, Dick flew back into it.” 

“Well, I hope Slicko comes back to her cage,” 
said Bob. 

But Slicko had no idea of coming back so 
soon. 

In a little while Bob had put some nuts on 
the ground outside the window, and near them, 
on a chair inside the room, he put the squirrel’s 
cage. 

“Now I’ll hide and watch to see if Slicko 
comes back,” said Bob. But Slicko did not 
want to be seen, so she stayed up in the tree. 
She was more hungry than ever, but she would 
not go down and get the nuts. After a while 
Bob got tired of hiding and waiting. 

“I’ll just go off and play ball,” he said to his 
sisters. “When I come back, maybe Slicko will 
be in her cage.” 

Slicko waited until Bob had gone. The little 
squirrel looked down, and seeing Mollie and 
Sallie off on the front porch, playing with their 
dolls, she thought it would be safe to go down 
and get a few nuts. 

Very carefully Slicko climbed down the tree. 
Stopping now and then, to make sure there was 
no danger, she reached the pile of nuts. She 
ate some, and oh 1 how good they tasted. 

Then, all at once, Slicko heard something 


Slicko’s Big Adventure 113 

coming softly through the grass behind her. It 
was so soft that it sounded only like the wind 
blowing, but Slicko knew that it was not the 
wind. 

Slicko turned quickly, just in time to see Muf- 
fins, the cat, make a spring for her. 

“Oh my!” cried Slicko, and, turning quickly, 
the little squirrel made a mad dash for the pear 
tree. She had a nut in her paws, but she 
dropped that in running. 

“Meaouw! Wow!” snarled Muffins, the big, 
black cat. She gave a spring, sticking out her 
claws, and trying to catch Slicko, but she was 
just too late. Slicko reached the tree, and up it 
she went almost to the very tip-top. 

Muffins followed, and ran up the tree trunk 
a little way, but she did not go as far as Slicko 
had gone. 

“My! That was the time she almost caught 
me!” thought Slicko, her little heart beating 
very fast. “I must be more careful after this. 
And oh! those nuts were so good. But I won’t 
dare go down after them again until it’s dark, 
when Muffins can’t see me.” 

Slicko stayed in the tree all the rest of that 
day. She could see the pile of nuts on the 
ground, but, though she was very, very hungry, 
she did not dare go down to get any for fear of 
Muffins. 


114 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

Slicko saw Bob come and look at the nuts. 
The boy cried out: 

“Oh, my squirrel has been here! Some of 
the nuts are gone! Slicko is somewhere around 
here!” 

But, though Bob looked in all the trees around 
the house, he could not find Slicko. Slicko 
saw Bob, though. 

The little squirrel stayed in the tree all that 
night. But she did not have a very good time. 
It was cold, and it rained, and there was no 
hole, and no nest, into which Slicko could crawl 
to keep warm. She just had to shiver. And 
she was more hungry than ever, too. 

“Oh dear! Running away isn’t as much fun 
as I thought it would be!” said Slicko. “To- 
morrow, when Bob puts out the nuts again, and 
leaves the cage open, I’m going to run back into 
it. I have had enough of living like this. I 
had rather do tricks, such as jumping through 
paper hoops, than be cold and hungry.” 

But the next day Bob went away, and did not 
put out any nuts for his little squirrel. And 
those he had put out were carried away by the 
rats. 

So Slicko got very few of them to eat, and 
she was quite hungry. She managed to find a 
few old acorns in the woods, but they were not 
so good as the nuts, apples and sugar Bob and 


Slicko’s Big Adventure 115 

his sisters used to feed her. And, as the win- 
dow of the room was not open, and as the cage 
was not put out, Slicko could not run back home 
again. 

“Isn’t Bob going to try to catch his squirrel?” 
asked Mollie of Sallie, on the second day. 

“No, I heard him say he guessed she was gone 
for good,” said Sallie. 

“Well, I haven’t — I’m here yet, and I’m com- 
ing back to my cage — that is when I see it,” 
Slicko said to herself. 

That afternoon Slicko, perched in the top of 
her tree, saw one of the attic windows of Bob’s 
house open. 

“Ha!” exclaimed the little squirrel. “I can 
jump in there from my tree. I’ll do it.” 

Slicko scrambled up to the highest branch. 
From there she could easily jump in through 
the attic window, and this she did. 

She looked around, and she was glad when 
she saw some butternuts on the floor of the attic. 
Slicko soon gnawed a hole in one, and ate out 
the sweet meat. Then she felt much better. 

It was nice and warm in the attic, and there 
was a pile of old clothes there. On these Slicko 
lay down and went to sleep. 

When Slicko awoke, it was all dark. She 
had slept until it was night. She sat up on her 
hind legs and listened. She could hear noth- 


n6 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

ing. The house was very quiet. Slicko looked 
at the window by which she had entered. It 
was tightly shut now. 

All of a sudden Slicko felt thirsty. She knew 
there was no water up in the attic, but there 
was plenty down stairs in the kitchen. Bob al- 
ways left a pan full there on the floor for his 
pet. 

“I’ll go down stairs and get a drink in the 
kitchen,” said Slicko to herself. 

Squirrels can see in the dark, almost as well 
as can owls, as I told you before. Soon Slicko 
was making her way safely down the front stairs. 

As she got to the kitchen, she saw a light 
burning low. And, by this light Slicko could 
see a man, with a piece of black cloth over his 
face, taking knives and forks and spoons from 
a table, and putting them into his pocket. 

Slicko, of course, did not know that the things 
were knives and forks and spoons. She only 
knew they were the things Bob and his sisters, 
and father and mother ate with. And, when 
she saw the man putting them into his pocket, 
Slicko thought they might be something good 
for her to eat. 

“That must be Bob’s papa,” thought Slicko. 
“Well, I’ll give him a surprise. I’ll run up 
his leg and go into his pocket. Then he’ll know 
I’m home again.” 


CHAPTER XII 


SLICKO FINDS HER NEST 

S CAMPERING softly over the oilcloth of 
the kitchen floor, Slicko came close to the 
man. Slicko thought it was Bob’s papa, 
but it was not. I’ll soon tell you who the man 
was. 

“ I do hope he has some sugar for me,” thought 
Slicko, for sometimes Bob’s papa would play 
at tricks and games with the little squirrel, and 
do just as Bob did — hide things in his pocket. 

Slicko was almost at the man’s leg. Her lit- 
tle claws made a patter-patter-pat sound on the 
floor oilcloth. The man heard it, and started. 
“A rat!” he cried. “I don’t like rats!” 

“The idea of calling me a rat!” thought 
Slicko. “I’ll soon show you who I am, Mr. 
Bob’s papa.” 

The next moment Slicko scrambled up the 
man’s leg, sticking her claws in the soft cloth of 
his trousers. 

“Get away from me! Get away from me!” 
the man cried, very much excited, and he struck 

at Slicko. “Get off me!” and the man was 
117 


n8 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

fairly screaming now. “Get away! I hate 
rats! I’m afraid of ’em!” 

“Why, he’s worse than Turn Turn, the ele- 
phant,” said Slicko to herself. “But maybe he’s 
only fooling. I’ll climb up on his shoulder and 
sit there. Then maybe he’ll give me something 
to eat.” 

Quickly Slicko scrambled up to the man’s 
shoulder. She put her soft, cold nose on his 
neck. 

“Oh! Oh! Go away! A rat! It’ll bite me!” 
cried the man. 

He leaped aside and with his hand brushed 
Slicko away. She fell on the kitchen table. 
And then, all of a sudden the whole house was 
filled with light. Slicko sat up on the table in 
time to see the man give a jump through the 
window, while from his pocket fell a shower 
of knives and forks and spoons. For the man 
was a burglar — a thief — and he had come in the 
night to rob. 

Out of the window he jumped. Slicko could 
see him very well, for the electric lights were 
turned on now. Up stairs Bob’s papa had heard 
the burglar cry out, and he had switched on the 
lights. 

“What a funny man,” thought Slicko of the 
burglar, “to jump out of the window as I did. 
I wonder why he is running away.” 



\ 

Slicko sat up on the table in time to see the man give 
a jump through the window. Page ng 

























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' 

- 


























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Slicko Finds Her Nest 


121 


Slicko saw a pan of water on the floor. She 
scrambled down and took a long drink, for 
she was quite thirsty. But she was not at all 
afraid. 

“I wish that man had let me sit on his shoul- 
der, ’’ she said to herself. “He might have 
given me a nut, or a piece of sugar. And he 
called me a rat — I don’t like that.” 

After getting her drink, Slicko sat up on the 
table again, and waited. She heard voices talk- 
ing, and people coming down stairs. Bob and 
his father came into the kitchen. 

“Oh, look! There’s my squirrel Slicko!” 
cried Bob. “She’s come back!” 

“Chatter! Chatter! Chat-chat-chatter-r-r- 
r-r!” chirped Slicko. “Of course I’m your lit- 
tle pet squirrel come back again. I’m sorry I 
ran away.” Only, of course, Bob did not un- 
derstand this. 

“What has happened?” asked the voice of 
Bob’s mother. 

“Slicko has come back,” said Bob. 

“Is that all?” 

“No, something else happened,” said Bob’s 
father, “and I guess we have Slicko to thank 
that our house was not robbed.” 

“Our house robbed! What do you mean?” 

“Why the kitchen window has been broken 
open, and here is some of our silver scattered 


122 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

about,” said Bob’s father. “I heard a man yell 
something about a rat, and I turned on the 
lights. He must have been a burglar, but he 
got away.” 

“What frightened him?” asked Bob. By 
this time Slicko was sitting on Bob’s shoulder, 
eating a lump of sugar he had gotten for her 
from the pantry. 

“I think Slicko, your squirrel, frightened 
him,” said the boy’s father. “That must have 
been it. The burglar came in here to rob us. 
In the night Slicko came back, somehow, and 
probably she tried to make friends with him, 
as she does with you, not knowing who he was. 
The man must have thought Slicko was a rat, 
and, being afraid, he ran off. Slicko saved us 
from being robbed, for see, the man dropped 
most of the things he took. Your squirrel is 
very smart, Bob. She scared away the thief.” 

“She is a good little squirrel,” said Bob. “I 
am glad she came back to me.” 

Slicko was put back into her cage for the rest 
of the night. She was glad she had come back 
to Bob. Everybody went to bed. 

The next day Slicko did her tricks again, and 
learned some new ones. She had many nuts and 
apple-s to eat. 

Still Slicko was not happy. The weather 
grew warmer. It was very warm in the house, 


Slicko Finds Her Nest 123 

but Slicko was not allowed to be out of her cage. 

“I don’t want her to run away again,” said 
Bob. 

Poor Slicko was now very mournful. As the 
warm days came, she wanted to be free to run 
in the shady woods. She would rather have 
sat swinging on the branch of a tree, than whirl 
around in the wire wheel of her cage. 

“Bob,” said the boy’s father to him one day, 
“don’t you think your squirrel would be hap- 
pier if you let it go out in the woods to live?” 

“What! Let my pet squirrel go?” asked Bob, 
in surprise. 

“Yes,” answered his father. “Slicko is not 
happy in her cage now. She might have been, 
in the winter, but now it is summer, and she 
ought to be out in the open. I think she wants to 
go.” 

Oh, how much Slicko hoped she could go! 
Her little heart beat very fast, as she looked 
through the bars of her cage. 

“Let Slicko go!” said Bob softly. “Oh, I 
can’t do that!” 

“Slicko did us a very great favor,” said Bob’s 
father. “She frightened away the burglar. I 
think, as a reward, you ought to let her go, 
Bob.” 

Bob said nothing for a long while. Then he 
spoke softly. 


124 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

“Very well, father/’ he said. “I’ll let Slicko 
go free!” 

Bob took the cage, with his pet in it, to the 
edge of the woods. He opened the little wire 
door. 

“You may go, Slicko,” said Bob. “Go off 
to the woods where you belong. I’ll set you 
free, but I hope you will come and see me, some- 
time.” 

“Chatter-chatter-chatter- r-r-r-r-r !” chirped 
Slicko. She sprang out of the cage, and stood 
upright for a moment on the ground. Then, 
she scrambled up on Bob’s shoulder and put her 
cold, soft nose on his cheek. That was her way 
of kissing him good-bye. 

Down scrambled Slicko, and off to the woods 
she ran. 

“Good-bye, Slicko, my little jumping squir- 
rel!” called Bob, as he went back to the house 
with the empty cage. And yet, after all, he 
felt happy that he had let Slicko go. 

Slicko ran on and on through the woods. All 
that day she wandered about. She found a 
spring and got a drink of water, and in a field 
she found an early apple tree, and ate an apple. 

The next day, as Slicko was jumping through 
the woods, she came to a tree that she was sure 
she had seen before. Half way up was a big 
lump, on which she knew she had often sat. A 


Slicko Finds Her Nest 125 

little farther up was a broken limb, and, close 
to that limb was a hole. 

“Why, that’s the nest where I used to live,” 
said Slicko. “I wonder if papa and mamma, 
and Chatter and Fluffy and Nutto have come 
back! I’m going up to see.” 

Up the tree scrambled Slicko. She looked 
in her old nest. Something inside it moved. 

“Hello!” said Slicko. 

“Why — why — why it’s Slicko — come back!” 
cried Chatter. “Papa — Mamma! Nutto, Fluffy! 
Come here. Slicko has come back!” 

Out of the nest rushed all the Squirrel family. 
They sat on their tails and looked at Slicko. 

“My! How she has grown!” cried her 
mother, patting Slicko with her paws. 

“How long have you been here?” asked 
Slicko. “That time you sent me to Aunt 
Whitey’s, I couldn’t find her — she wasn’t home.” 

“No, Slicko,” said her papa, “your aunt had 
hurriedly moved to another nest. We didn’t 
know it when we sent you there. And, not long 
ago, we all came back here. For it is safe now. 
The hunter-man and his dog have gone from 
these woods.” 

“And so we are all together again,” said 
Fluffy. “I’m glad.” 

“So am I!” exclaimed Slicko. 

“But where have you been — and what hap- 


126 Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 

pened to you?” asked the mamma squirrel. 

“Oh, I have had so many adventures!” cried 
Slicko. “I can jump through paper hoops, I 
can crawl in Bob’s pocket and get sugar, and I 
scared away a burglar!” 

“My, you did have some adventures,” said 
Mrs. Squirrel. “But come in now, and have 
some dinner.” 

And so that was the end of Slicko’s adven- 
tures for a while. She got safely back to her 
nest, and she lived there with her father and 
mother, and sister and brothers, for many years. 

Sometimes she would meet Squinty, the comi- 
cal pig, or Mappo, the merry monkey. And 
that reminds me. I have some stories to tell 
you about him. But I shall have to put them 
in another book. It will be named “Mappo, 
the Merry Monkey,” and in it you may read all 
about his many adventures. 

“Are you going to run away again, Slicko?” 
asked Nutto, one day about a week after his sis- 
ter came back. 

“No, I am only going to run up to the top of 
this tree, and down again,” said the little squir- 
rel, and she did. 


THE END 


Stories for Children 

FROM 5 TO 9 YEARS OLD 


THE KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES 

By Richard Barnum 

Large 12mo. Cloth. Illustrated 
Price per volume 40 cents Postpaid 

In all nursery literature animals have played a conspicuous 
part; and the reason is obvious for nothing entertains a child 
more than the funny antics of an animal. These stories 
abound in amusing incidents such as children adore and the 
characters are so full of life, so appealing to a child's imagina- 
tion that none will be satisfied until they have met all of their 
favorites — Squinty, Slicko, Mappo, Turn Turn and Don. 

Squinty, the Comical Pig 
Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel 
Mappo, the Merry Monkey 
Turn Turn, the Jolly Elephant 
Don, A Runaway Dog. 

For sale at all book stores, or sent (postage paid) on receipt of price 
by the publishers 


Publishers, 


BARSE & HOPKINS 

526 W. 26th St. 


New York 





















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